I'm in love and his name is Roomba!

It’s not a traditional love story. Think Romeo and Juliet meets 2001 A Space Odyssey. No, maybe ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?’ is closer. It’s a bizarre tale of my new love affair…which my husband knows about, tolerates and even sometimes encourages!

I'm fairly sure that I've never put pen to paper (or fingers to laptop) about a household appliance before but enter my new and now beloved Roomba. Can I just say, OMIGOD!!!!! Jane Jetson here I come, I mean O-M-I-G-O-D!

It started late last year when a work pal and avowed geek told me over lunch that he had a Roomba vacuum and it would change my life. Yeah, allright. It's basically a vacuum cleaner that runs by itself. I was mildly intrigued, particularly when he told me where I might find one on sale, but it was still a vacuum cleaner after all.

But the ‘vacuum cleaner’ description doesn't do my Roomba justice. My emotional attachment defies description. So a love affair with Roomba would probably be more apt. How weird is that - I'm using the words 'love affair' and a vacuum cleaner in the same sentence. I'm afraid I AM Jane Jetson.

Thrifty soul that I am (as lovingly described by my husband although ‘cheap’ is closer to the truth) I figured that a Roomba would be a lot cheaper than a cleaning lady. Change my life or not, a bargain is a bargain after all. And after four months of considering, thinking, changing my mind, changing my mind back again - I found a Roomba I-Robot on-line and took the plunge. I grabbed my plastic and pounded out my numbers and my address, little knowing how one purchase would be so pivotal.

Some seven days later a box was delivered to the house and I quickly changed out of my work clothes to uncrate my electronic toy. Like many middle-aged women, I’m not really particularly excited about electronic toys. Sure, I have a blackberry and a netbook computer but I can’t work our TiVo to save my soul and can barely turn our complicated tv/cable/bluray set on to watch NCIS.

But the Roomba was pretty easy to assemble and needed a charge so 24 hours later it was good to go. It was kind of a fun, futuristic looking little thing but I remained mildly pessimistic particularly in the face of my family’s bemused glances.

The love affair really blossomed when I put Roomba to work: Imagine a long, soul-sapping day at work OR a busy weekend when you really don’t want to spend the whole darn day cleaning and then picture this:

Roomba politely vacuums one room at a time behind closed doors while I sip chardonnay in the other room. He docks himself at the battery charger automatically when he's done vacuuming. He tells me when I need to clean out the massive amounts of dog hair from his brushes. He tells me when he's stuck somewhere. Roomba generally cleans beautifully and I don't do much besides clean the brushes after he's done. Now I ask you: Is this is lovely vision or what?

But I think my love affair with Roomba is more about what he DOESN'T do: doesn't argue, never complains, doesn’t roll his eyes dramatically, won’t shrug, and has never heaved a mighty sigh. Roomba has never ignored me, never “forgotten” that I had asked him to vacuum, never even done a half-hearted job so he wouldn’t be asked to do it again. Roomba has never ever required repeating nagging. I love my Roomba!

In truth I do need sometimes need to spend some a bit of time cleaning his brushes. But I will deny that in his presence, he might find it hurtful. The fact remains that while he is working I am not. Get that? He does the work and I don’t have to. I love my Roomba. I really do love my Roomba.

I use my Roomba at least 5 times a week, we have a pretty big house and a very hairy border collie, and every single time he finishes a room I can be heard to remark aloud that ‘I love my Roomba’. The family still teases me about Roomba’s first week when I left him to do our bedroom and actually SERIOUSLY considered leaving a light on so he could see what he was doing!

You may have noticed that he is not “the Roomba” because in my world Roomba is simply his name. And just last week I bestowed him with our family name too, so now he’s not just Roomba, he’s Roomba Gehring,

I think it’s interesting that if you Google “Roomba”, the official company website promises; maintain cleaner floors every day! Life happens in busy homes. Stay ahead of messy floors with the touch of a button!

Doesn’t even begin to describe Roomba for me though. Not even close.