I cleaned house yesterday.

It had been a while; while the place never gets to what I would consider an unhygienic state, there was a buildup of dust on things, and I had tracked in a number of dead leaves (despite trying to remember to take my shoes off at the door and changing into slippers). I also had a big buildup of clutter, mostly junk mail (or mail that became junk by virtue of time-elapsed: catalogs, for example. If I don't look at it within 2 weeks I usually just get rid of it. At least two of the places (Bas Bleu and Vermont Country Store) will probably have sent several extra copies or updated catalogs in that time).

Yesterday was Homecoming; I'm sorry to say I'm totally lacking in school spirit as far as that's concerned. If required to go and do something, I do it without complaining, but I really don't have that much interest in going on my own volition to sit in the chill drizzle in a football stadium and then wind up muttering imprecations under my breath while trying to get out of the parking lot after the game.

Instead, I stayed home and cleaned and did some general puttering-around. I had had a piece of gingerroot I bought to make soup with (I like to make something like hot and sour soup with chicken broth, ginger, garlic, and vinegar) but forgot about - so it had begun to sprout. I decided it was worth a try planting it so I had to make a run out for a small pot and some potting soil. (I hold out high hopes of having an indoor ginger plant; I think that would be cool.)

I also filled and hung up a feeder I "won" at the last city trash-off. ("Won" in quotation marks because so few people showed up (9) that we all got a prize. Heh. And I tell my students I don't give bonus points to people who show up to class when the class is very scant because "you shouldn't expect rewards just for showing up")

It's kind of a nice feeder, it has "flippable" ports so you can convert it from a thistle-seed feeder to a regular feeder. I wound up opening the ports and buying a sunflower/peanut/dry fruit mix (hey, I have no pets or children. So I feel OK spending the big bucks on the wild birds). I bought that because I mostly see cardinals around these days, and anyway, they're one of my favorites, so I'd like to attract them. I put it up in the largish privet that is growing next to my living room window - it's also near the abelia bushes out front, where birds often go for "thermal cover" when it gets cold.

I also reshuffled the yarn storage bins and was able to empty out the "Stitches and Stuff" bag I got LAST year on my trip to Longview - it's one of those printed canvas bags that so many stores give out now (in the hopes, I think, that you'll reuse it, saving both resources and saving them a bit of money if you keep coming back in with the same bag). I put it in my car. Yes, I'm geeky enough that I'm going to bring the bag back for them to refill with this year's purchases. But seeing it in my car makes me smile, makes me think of what I will get to do Thursday.

(Part of the reason for cleaning house is precisely so I'd have a clean house for break - so I wouldn't feel obligated to clean during it.)

It's nice having a clean house. I know, lots of people do "Flylady" and as a result, they ALWAYS have a clean house. But I don't think I could do it - for one thing, I get irked at being told what to do (I don't mind pitching in and doing some menial task, but let someone TELL me to do it and I start to grumble). And for another, I think if I arrived home some night at 8:30 after an evening meeting and a full day of class, and found a chipper e-mail telling me "This is the day to scrub your kitchen floor!" I would probably send back an e-mail to the Flylady that was full of not-very-ladylike rhetoric.

So I clean when I can, and figure if I have to, I can do a quick de-spotting and sweep if people are coming over in between "big" cleaning.

(I think of the old Phyllis Diller (I think it was) routine where she said she dealt with housecleaning and people coming over thusly: she kept a drawerful of get-well cards on hand, and a bathrobe and nightie at the handy. And if someone called and said they were coming over, and her house was in a state, she said she threw the get-well cards up on the mantel, changed into the nightie and robe, and shammed that she had a VERY BAD COLD which was why the place was a mess. I don't think I could get away with that considering that most people who know me see me out and about and obviously not infected....)

I also know lots of people who have cleaning ladies, even people (like me) who are single and, as a result, their houses never get THAT dirty. But that's just not something I can do. It's partly a money issue for me (Perhaps that's somewhat like my granddad, of whom it was said, "Cy will go around from year to year in the same old ratty hat and spend all his money on books") but it's also partly a "privacy" issue. I'm just not comfortable with people that I do not know well seeing how I live - all the yarn and fabric I have squirreled away, the bookcases lining nearly every wall. Oh, and er, um...the teddy bear and other critters that still sit on my bed. Yes, I'm 40.

I know I'm eccentric in many ways; I just don't like an "outsider" knowing it, and very likely telling other people that I might prefer to hide the full weight of my oddities from.

(And yes, I realize I have effectively told the world - or at least the fairly few who read this - several of my "big" eccentricities. But somehow it's easier to reveal it yourself than it is to hear it come back to you thirdhand)