In Which Carnita Has a Long Weekend Alone

Simon took a trip to his parents' house this weekend and left the house to Harvey and me. I would have trouble expressing to you the extent of my relief about having some time and space to myself. It turns out that there are many parts of myself that I had forgotten about in the demented mental miscellany that has shaped my domestic partnership for the last couple of months.

For example, our house had been in a state of chaos for a long time, but I couldn't seem to find the right mindset to take care of the problem. However, within a day of Simon leaving, I got a decisive sense of urgency about cleaning the place, and I didn't stop until everything was spotless. It didn't hurt that our new friend Valerie, who has been staying on our couch with a fair amount of regularity, had scrubbed my entire bathroom by the time I woke up Saturday morning. That was all I needed to get inspired. Sometimes when Simon is around, I feel so bogged down by his attention and crowded by his physical presence--which seems to revolve around wherever I want to clean--that it feels unduly exhausting to do simple tasks.

Furthermore, he usually seems unaware of his tendency to trail objects behind him everywhere as he moves through the house: excessive water glasses, papers and folders, musical instruments, lengths of used dental floss, used tissues, beard trimmings, used towels, dirty laundry, cords and headphones, and most especially books. It's not that he is the only one who ever does this, but it is true that he won't tidy up after himself unless nagged and reminded. As a result, I feel discouraged about cleaning because I know that he will immediately set about re-cluttering as soon as he enters the space. His lack of awareness of the things he leaves behind makes it pretty much impossible to remedy the situation by a simple discussion. Believe me, we've tried that.

In summary, I have found out in almost three years with Simon that for the house to be as clean as I would like for it to be, I basically have to resign myself to the necessity of rather constantly going behind him (in addition to myself, of course) and putting things back where they belong, wiping things up, and throwing things away. I feel much more capable of fielding the responsibility now that the entire house is clean and everything is only a matter of maintenance. Instead of needing to spend half an hour or more per day cleaning just to keep up, from here on out I can expect to average a much more manageable time investment. I am stoked about it. Getting things clean was such an important sanity preservation measure, and it felt so good to remind myself that I am capable of proper housekeeping.

Anyway, I'm going to cut this entry short because I didn't get to finish it when I started it. More to come later...