Cathartic Cleaning

Moving is usually just a pain in the ass, no more, no less. That's still true in this case, but this time it's different. It's been a cathartic purging of crap - actual crap and emotional baggage.

Yesterday I sorted through all the stuff I'd squirreled away in a cedar chest - things I thought I would always keep with me, like a paper trail of my existence or a time capsule for others to find after I leave this world. Old SAT scores and report cards, travel souvenirs, journals, stacks of newspaper clippings of momentous events and a few letters to/from friends.

What a surprise - most of that crap wasn't worth keeping. The program from the skating show at the Coliseum when I was 12! I MUST have it! It was fun to look through it and remember what I used to be so attached to, but a relief to throw it out and be free of the clutter.

Amid the papers, playbills and cards I found a few letters from a friend I lost touch with years ago. We had our ups and downs as any friendship does. Unfortunately I'd saved some letters written during the downs.

But reading those letters now, for the first time it became clear that the friendship I thought we had was mostly what I'd imagined it to be. I thought it had been much more than it actually was.

It's hard to lose a friend and even harder when it's not clear why it happened, but seeing the situation with the clarity of hindsight and time makes it easier to let it go. It was never what I thought it was, so I didn't really lose what I thought I did, if that makes any sense.

I still miss her and the connection we had, but it feels good to finally see things clearly and move past it in a new way. I kept only one letter, a funny one that made me laugh. I put the others through the shredder.

Floor 1, Environment -37

I need to apologize to the environment for all the products I used over the weekend to combat a crappy old kitchen floor. In the end, it came down to Windex, a new mop and a Scotch Brite scrubbing pad. It wasn't pretty.

Problem is, the floor is 4o or 50 years old. It might as well be made of adobe. It absorbs whatever touches it. It mocks the Hoover Floor Mate I purchased a few years ago. The Floor Mate has finish-friendly scrubbers. Those have no place here, in a world without finish.

So after busting out the Floor Mate & thinking No problem, we'll be done in no time, I was crestfallen to see the dirt coming up, but not the stains. More work would be required, you bitch of a floor. I wasn't going to do that entire thing on my hands and knees. I'd have to take a week off work to recover.

A trip to BB&B proved worthless. All the mops & "scrubbers" they sell are guaranteed to not destroy your floor. I needed a destroyer. I was off to the drugstore. At Long's I found a new mop with a standard spongy pad but with a very sturdy metal handle. Took that home along with more Windex, prepped to go to battle.

Dampen the mop, squirt the floor with Windex, drop the scrubby pad on the floor, put the mop on top and GO! It was sort of a Pilates/cardio/strength training session all in one, with a clean floor as a result. Clean in a totally stripped sort of way, but at least it's finally clean.



Funny thing - this is the actual pattern of the floor - it's handy in that it's designed to look like it's splattered with paint, egg yolk, blood and ink.

I challenge anyone trying to reduce their "footprint" to come live here and clean that floor without using a ridiculous amount of caustic, non-enviro-friendly products.

Stupid floor.