i finally did it

this morning was the first morning of the 100 mile diet, and i was pretty bummed to realize that my plans to go to a cafe and write today were hamstrung by that endeavor. i really do love spending many hours in cafes...

the alternative to the cafe was my desk. now, some of you (sam) know what a terrible catastrophe the "study" in our apartment is. cat hair and dust and it seems to be the room all of the random crap ends up in (not that you're random crap sam, but i'm sad you have to wedge yourself in there among it!). that said, it's not exactly a place where i feel inspired to write. and so today was spent, instead of at a cafe, in a serious cleaning session. i dusted, i scrubbed a little bit and vacuumed a lot, and dragged around my huge, heavy old desk until the room looked fresh and focused enough to be a place i wanted to spend some time in.

i've been wanting to attack that back room for a long time, but it was daunting in its chaos. another thing that made it daunting were the two or three boxes of school stuff that i packed up after graduation, deposited in the corner of that room, and promptly ignored... for more than a year. it was high time i sorted through those. i found some weird stuff (like flea spot medicine for the cat), but mostly i found reams of paper--much of which now resides in my recycling bin. i had so much paper in that room! old assignments, file folders of carefully organized notes, receipts from two years ago (brilliant financial planning that was), and just piles of tattered paper. it took me about an hour to go through it all. some was jettisoned immediately and without regret (*cough* social methods file), my careful and detailed notes from social theory were harder. as were the many drafts of various poems and essays. i did end up keeping a few things (favorite essays that i wrote--one of which had a glaring grammar error in the first paragraph (dang it!), some favorite readings from various classes, a lot of folders and notebooks to be reused), but the majority is gone. and guess what? there's room for a chair in that room! a nice, cozy reading chair. i might have to go in search of one!

mondays have become my cleaning day it seems. some kind of cleaning project is usually undertaken in the company of loud music and messy clothes. it's pretty rejuvenating for me to do some scrubbing on my days off, and nothing is more gratifying than a clean counter, bathtub, or desk, even if it is the only thing in the apartment that is shiny.

hopefully i will be able to my newly reclaimed desk for some serious writing efforts in the coming weeks. i've always wanted to be one of those people who rolls out of the bed in the morning and does some writing. we'll see if round two with this desk will be more lucrative.

b