A Room Cleaning Observed

All the clever things I was planning to write earlier in the day have flown my mind like little birds going south for the winter. But I live in south. So I don't know why my thoughts would want to fly anywhere.

Today I cleaned my room. I haven't done that in a long time, and I should have known better. I told myself it would only take thirty minutes, but an hour and a half and 2000 dust bunnies later, I was just getting warmed up.

It needed cleaning in those sneaky places like under the bed, on the window sills behind the blinds, and behind the Rubbermaid containers in my closet. Once the vacuum cleaner came out, I couldn't stop. It would have been an ideal situation, a joy to my mother, but the timing was bad. I needed to stop so I could have tea with Mrs. Burklin, which I was greatly looking forward to (and thoroughly enjoyed).

So I did claim victory over the vacuuming impulse. I found some things in the closet along the way. T-shirts, hoodies, someone's bow and arrow, my scattered drawing stuff, Mom's Christmas present, a lot of ladybugs.

Our house is infested with ladybugs. I vacuumed up dozens of them. The ladybug inundation marks the onset of winter at our house every year, and has done so for as long as I can remember. Whenever I am in bed watching them crawling around on the light fixture like little turtles, I think of my dear friend Chelsea. She walked into my room one day (ten or twelve years ago), got one look at the wildlife, and fled screaming. She eventually recovered.

I don't mind the ladybugs, if they stay on the ceiling. But the past two mornings I've woken to the sight of a little spotted bug scurrying along the line of my bed covers at eye level, and that's a little disconcerting. Especially since the little creeps let off such a stench if you disturb them. Connor said, "They're like little skunks in red suits." I wouldn't go that far, but...

I didn't get around to everything I could have done in there. There is still a huge Rubbermaid container full of all the cards and letters I've received since I was seven; that needs some attention. I can't carry those to and fro across the planet for the rest of my life.

I did put away the last little pile of gear from my last suitcase from Ukraine. So that is that. After five months, I guess it was about time.