Sunday, September 8, 2013

Making Room

Inspirational song: Wide Open Spaces (Dixie Chicks)

My day went about as well as I could have hoped, all things considered. I didn't end up spending it all building the blanket fort, but I did do the next closest thing. I finished rearranging my living room. It would have taken nothing to grab one of my many lap blankets, and drape it across the chaos, so I could crawl inside to read. I did settle down with all my high school yearbooks for a few minutes, since I had carried down the secretary where they live, one drawer at a time. I was proud of myself for solving the puzzle of how to bring the secretary's frame downstairs all by myself, since it's just big and awkward enough that I couldn't pick it up and walk down without falling and breaking both me and it. Rather than drag its fragile feet across the carpet, I flipped it on its top and slid it. The last few months in the gym still came in handy, as I'm not sure I could have controlled the slide six months ago. 

I moved, arranged, dusted, oiled, sorted, and threw out trash while half-watching football. Now my living room is cleaner than it has been in a month, and feels almost too wide open. I did this in an effort to gain some visual holes in a room that had become too crowded, and I need to reassure myself that I did the right thing. At least I know that cleaning was the right thing, because it has been enough to keep me from freaking out over football. (It helps that my fantasy team did fantastically well.) Here I am, at the end of it all, still channeling my grandmother while I do dishes during the Cowboys-Giants game. And yet I wonder, would she approve that I'm copying her behavior, or would she kick me out of the family for doing it wearing a Giants t-shirt? I don't want to know the answer.

I can tell the animals like the arrangement as it stands, and the clear spaces. I have almost everyone in here sleeping around me. But, in the same manner our government takes precautions during the state of the union address, there is always one member of the pride in an undisclosed location. I would love to attend the meetings where they coordinate this. I have yet to be invited. If the last quadruped walks through the room, even briefly, is it appropriate to yell Yahtzee?

I need to rethink where the big philodendron goes. I had it on the old entertainment unit, out of the kitten's reach, but with the new setup, it's on the floor by a window. I have found her in it more times than I can possibly count. She needs to stay out of it. It's on the list of unsafe plants, I think. But she thinks it's great camouflage to hide in while she watches the Minions try and fail to kill the lizard who is hanging out on the outside of the widow. Some kittens are born naughty, some have naughtiness thrust upon them...

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