mmmm, bed!

[vulgarweed]

I just slept for 12 hours. Man, that felt good!

Now, entering into a three-day weekend (mine starts on Sunday these days) I look around at my apartment and think, hmmmm.

Could use a good cleaning, eh?



The bane of neat freaks and good housekeepers everywhere is people they might live with who don't clean because they "just don't see clutter." Hard as it is for the Felixes of the world to understand, this is not a lie or an excuse. I'm one of those people, and it's true. My attention is just usually elsewhere (mmmm, porn!), and the immediate physical surroundings of where I live every day are sort of white-noise of the mind that I just don't notice anymore after I've settled in. Sort of like the way you don't really notice someone you live with gradually losing or gaining weight, but if you hadn't seen the same person in six months, whoa!

There's always that day I wake up and think, "hmmmm," though. (Another thing about us Oscars--when we do clean, we prefer to be rewarded with the sight of a dramatic improvement for our work, so we like to let things ripen to a point where the "before" and "after" scenes will be amazingly different even to our inferior sensitivities.)

Also, G is the only person who visits me with any regularity, so the realization that he's not going to be navigating my spiral staircase for quite a few weeks yet has led to a certain relaxation of standards. That were already pretty relaxed. (After seeing his place, I will no longer even humor any suggestions that I was the slobby one.)

Now, mind you, I don't tolerate unsanitary conditions (anymore). I wash dishes, I take out trash, I scrub bathroom fixtures. There's a big delineation in my mind between crud that is "clean" (books, CDs, boxes, bags, laundry wandered off in that stage between "dragged up stairs" and "put away") and "unclean" (organic stuff that could stink or draw bugs or just be gross). Only one is important.



So I guess the question is, will I clean, or will I write fic? (Got three WIPs active; two GO, one HP) Or will I poke at both half-assedly?

Comments

[quantum-witch.livejournal.com]

You really don't know how very much you sound like me! XD I'm definitely the Oscar sort. Kitchen surfaces and item, clean. Bathroom surfaces, clean. Floor, needs a good vacuuming (I hate carpet!!!) Surfaces everywhere else in the place, covered with paper, books, and sundries.

Funny, the years I lived alone, I was immaculate. Anytime I've lived with someone, we both get sloppy.

And writing... did you get my email?

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

Email? *ears prick up* Not since last night, no.

[quantum-witch.livejournal.com]

You didn't reply to the last one. Unless it didn't get through...? It was about fics I'm writing.

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

Oh GOD. I thought I had - I was so sleepy last night - and I even remember what I wrote, but I must have hit the wrong button. Let me try to re-create it right now!

[tyellas.livejournal.com]

Clean for a clean start to the New Year, I say. I'm giving my place a lick and a promise today, to start out the New Year as I hope to go on: in a reasonably tidy house, able to sit and write for a bit. Sounds good, yes?

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

If you clean, things will just get dirty again. Net gain: 0

If you write fic, words stay fixed on the page. Net gain = total number of words written.

Clearly, you should write fic! There's no point in arguing with a mathematical proof. ;-)

[applegnat.livejournal.com]

My mother doesn't believe that this type of person really exists in the world. Every time she steps into my room I still see the look of disbelief on her face. But your post makes me wildly happy to learn that I am not alone in my blindness! I don't see the point in chasing around dirt and disorder when I could be writing porn. I just don't. Don't the holy books all warn us not to bow down to wood and stone?

[erunyauve-e.livejournal.com]

(Another thing about us Oscars--when we do clean, we prefer to be rewarded with the sight of a dramatic improvement for our work, so we like to let things ripen to a point where the "before" and "after" scenes will be amazingly different even to our inferior sensitivities.)

Yes, that's more or less the trouble. Only, I want the place to look as if it's never been lived in when I'm done cleaning, which would take days, so I never get started. (Also, I end up smelly and gross when I clean, and dirt on me is definitely not to be tolerated.)

[blueeyedtigress.livejournal.com]

I, myself, enjoy multiplexing. Unless one starts burning a lot brighter than the other, and distraction is impossible.

So, which did you do?

[shadowvalkyrie.livejournal.com]

I do identify with your attitude!

people they might live with who don't clean because they "just don't see clutter."
Heh. ME.

when we do clean, we prefer to be rewarded with the sight of a dramatic improvement for our work, so we like to let things ripen to a point where the "before" and "after" scenes will be amazingly different even to our inferior sensitivities
Oh YES! That's the only thing to make cleaning worthwhile!

And I agree, the differene between "sanitary" and "tidy" is very important! The former: necessary, the latter: impossible to achieve.