Motivation Coming From The Prospect Of Having Beloved Company

 

As I've said before, I consider the hallway of this house to be an entirely separate room and it really is. It's one of those hallways that goes from the front doors to the back doors in a straight line and it has four rooms coming off of it, two on each side. And also, the hallway is where the staircase lives. 

And the hallway is what I concentrated on today.

Now before we go any farther, let me explain that this sudden interest in cleaning is due to the fact that Lon and Lis are coming to stay on Sunday and although I know they don't really care at all about the dust and mildew and peeling paint, as I've told Lis- I'm embarrassed. 
So I'm trying to just do a little bit of cleaning but of course once you get started on a project like this, suddenly everything that needs to be done is magnified to the point where it all seems hopeless. Also, in my current winnowing mood, that enters into the picture and so what should take about half an hour turns out to take all day and although I did put a good amount of things in the donate pile, none of it was anything that made a difference in how things look. 
Such as music CD's which I've always kept in the drawers of the sort of hallway altar. 
They are mostly empty now, those drawers, and it was not easy getting rid of those CD's because music is so personal and has played such an important role in my life that each and every one of them held memories of how I felt when I listened to those songs whether it was joyful and made me want to dance or something that got me through a hard time. 
Now I'm thinking I should go get those CD's out of the trunk of my car and put them back into the drawers. I THINK I still have a CD player. 
Oh hell. I suck at this.
But now my hallway smells of Fabuloso and vinegar and furniture polish and that's nice at least. I only have about nine other rooms I need to get to including the bathrooms. I think the library is going to have to stay as it is. I tidied up a few things in the dining room but honestly, I haven't barely even made a start there. 
I still can't figure out where to put my little Chinese man and woman lamps. They look terrific on the hallway table but it's just too much of a culture clash with La Reina de Mexico and she ain't going nowhere. There are two places in the dining room where they'd look swell but one of those places already has two lamps on it which I shall not move because they were on my grandfather's dresser. The sideboard in that room would also make a very nice home for them but I have a lamp in that place that May gave me for Christmas one year that I ADORE and I don't want to move it. 

It's so blue and so round and the shade doesn't really seem to go with it and yet, it's somehow genius perfect. 
Sigh. 
No. That lamp, like the Virgin of Guadalupe, is not going anywhere. 
I've been trying to think of places I could shuffle lamps around but so far I have not been able to figure it out. 

So that's my entire, entirely boring day. Pottery tomorrow and I have a fairly long list of things I need to do afterwards so I won't have much time to attend to anything else. 

Glen has spent another day on Tom's issues and isn't home yet. It's a good thing we'll be heading to NC in a few weeks. We need to get out of town and be sweethearts and traveling buddies. You'd think after retirement and being empty-nesters and all of that stuff, we'd have a lot more time to relax. Do fun things like head to the coast for a day or go visit a spring we've never been to or hell, just drive the eight miles or whatever it is to the Wacissa but no, it seems like every minute, at least lately, has been filled with should-do's and must-do's. Being away from home is a guarantee that at least we won't be looking at weeds that need pulling or grass that needs mowing or friends that need tending in legal, health-care, and other related ways. 

One time when Lis was a young mother and her son was being rather difficult, she asked an older neighbor lady if it got easier as the child got older. 
The old lady paused and then she said, "Well, it gets different."
And isn't that life? 

Here's a picture of the strawberry shortcake I served Mr. Moon last night. 

I think he'll probably have another piece tonight. 

Love...Ms. Moon