blue artichoke

GC is in San Antonio covering the Big 12 championship game, and I'm taking this opportunity to mess up the house. Yesterday I decided to work on a sewing project, so I draped fabric all over the living room and set up my sewing machine. I did make progress on the project, but am lacking a few key elements so I'll have to finish it later this week.

I stayed up late working on this project, then for some stupid reason, decided to get in bed and watch an episode of Carnivale. If you haven't seen it, it's a really dark and creepy show. I had weird dreams, but the only one I could remember this morning was the dream about how I should probably dust the lampshades in the living room. What? Who dreams about cleaning? Anyway, this morning, after the bump on the head, I looked at the lampshades and was grossed out at how dusty they were. This spurred a down-and-dirty top-to-bottom cleaning of the living room, including vacuuming the baseboards, dusting the curtain rods, washing the inside of the windows, polishing wood tables, cleaning out GC's junk drawer (which is no longer in use. I avoided his junk table), vacuuming underneath furniture and, of course, dusting the lampshades. I'm not sure what got in to me, but the living room is sparkling clean and well-ordered, except for the corner where I corralled my sewing project.

In the process of cleaning the living room, I was amazed at how dirty and cluttered the room had to get in order to get clean. This is something that I warn my clients about, so they don't freak out when they look around in the midst of sorting through their things, only to see an even bigger mess than when they started. I see it as just part of the process, but it is different when it's your own room that just gets messier the longer you work. By the end, though, if we've worked well, the whole room is put back together, clean, tidy and organized, and in just a few minutes.

But back to my dusting dream. Dreams are so weird, and kind of scary because we have no idea what our brains are up to when we're asleep. Had I subconsciously noticed the dusty lampshades and repressed the thoughts of cleaning them because I'm lazy or have higher priorities, only to have my dreaming mind bring out those thoughts and demand I do something about it? I think the brain does sift through information and reveal repressed thoughts through dreams, so I guess I've got a sparkling clean conscience if my only repressed thoughts are about cleaning. Or perhaps dusty lampshades are a symbol for something more meaningful. It's possible. Who knows? All I know is that I have clean lampshades.

Getting to Know All About You: Tell us about one of your weird dreams.