Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Burn

I cannot seem to put any good words on the page this week. I open Word, stare at the page full of crap words, then minimize the screen to cheer myself up with some blog reading.
Everything distracts me these days. My messy desk. Piles of paper. The internet. The dog. The building fire alarm at 10am this morning screaming Eeeeeeeeeeee for 30 minutes. The firemen who finally came to turn the alarm off. All the cleaning I need to do before guests arrive in two days.
So. I cleaned. I intended to clean only the shower. If I clean one mess at a time, I reasoned, I won't waste too many writing hours, and I'll get it done by Friday evening.
But. I cannot stop cleaning once I start. My rationale says, "What's the point in cleaning the shower, if you don't wipe the counter. And, of course, you must sweep after you wipe the counter. And then vacuum, because all that dust from sweeping is on the carpet now. Well, while you're at it, you may as well organize junk into that storage unit you bought a month ago and haven't used yet."
Result? The apartment is much cleaner and I did some serious organizing. Unfortunately, I'm now distracted by my burning nostrils from all that Lysol I used in the shower, and I'm cold because I have the fan on and the window open in order to air out the bleach smell. Still, I created a space for a rice cooker that a friend gave to us. Our rice always turns out crap, and he got a fancy one for his wedding, so we inherited the old one and now we can have perfect rice. Plus, I found two bottles of wine hidden away in the hall closet where the rice cooker was waiting for a new home. Fancy that, hidden wine just waiting to be found! Perhaps I'll have it with my rice?
Seriously. I need to go write now...

5 comments:

Helen said...

Angie you need to join my friend's scrubbers anonymous!

http://indiagrey.blogspot.com/2007/10/scrubbers-anonymous.html

Set up for those who find hosuework all of a sudden quite tempting when faced with a day of writing ;)

Lane Mathias said...

At least you found the wine! You now have wine, perfect potential rice and a clean abode ready for your guests. You can write in peace:-)

Unknown said...

Angie-- you are not alone!

I am deep in deadline denial and still cleaning. I think it's a hitherto unidentified illness afflicting writers, and the main symptoms are a bizarre awareness of grime and an extreme restlessness when faced with a computer screen.

The only solution is to go cold turkey with the Lysol. The two bottles of wine may help with this...

Anonymous said...

Hi Angie

It's been ages since I last commented on your blog and now I am enjoying the space to do it once again. How are you?

Snap! I have had just the same type of week as you. Last week I wrote 7000 words towards my assignments and this week I barely scraped 700.

I am seeking inspiration from the story of "Three Gold Hairs" in the book "Women Who Run With the Wolves." by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. I bought it again yesterday,having given it away in my twenties.

It's heartening as it basically says we can expect to run out of steam for creative endeavours now and again.

Big hugs
H
x

Angie said...

Helen, thanks for the tip, I've popped over to her site and it is perfect for me! I'll be a model member. (Er, perhaps that's bad?)

Lane, the wine find made my day. :) The apt is clean (for now), wine was opened this weekend, but I must try out the rice maker. Writing peace sounds lovely.

India, thanks for visiting. I think you are right - it is an unrecognized illness! The wine is a great antidote to cleaning urges, as well as burning my nostrils while cleaning with the lysol (seriously).

Hullaballoo, it's great to see you around again. Those low writing weeks are horrid aren't they? Thanks for the book tip, it sounds intriguing and I will have to check it out. :)