The Rice is Gone and so is the Mattress

     If you didn’t read yesterday’s blog post then you probably have no clue what this blog is about.  Just a quick re-cap for those of you too tired to read yesterday’s post.  I’m busy, I like to cook when I have time, I have no time because my kitchen is always a mess and I spend all of my time cleaning instead of cooking.  Except yesterday I ran out of time cleaning and had to leave a mess of fried rice on the stovetop. The rice has been cleaned off of my stovetop and my mattress is out of my bedroom.

     The summers at the outfitter are quite busy as you probably can imagine.  There isn’t time to clean my own house because I’m too busy cleaning the lodge units, Riverside Cabin, Water’s Edge, the bunkhouses or the bathhouses.  Things tend to pile up; Papers I should read, dust on the tables, dog fur under the couch and you get the picture.  

     Having had the same cheap mattress for I don’t know how many years we finally purchased a new one through a barter club we belong to.  It’s kind of like a very cheap version of a Tempur-Pedic and when it came it was very compact and tightly bundled.  It arrived while Josh and I were on a canoe camping trip in the BWCA so I was happily surprised when I came back to a new mattress.  I have sleep issues and my back had been bothering me so I was banking on the new mattress to help with both issues.

     Our canoe trip was at the beginning of August and we had a fabulous time.  When I walked up my spiral stairs to my bedroom on August 11th I found a new mattress on my bed, plastic wrappers on the floor from it and my old mattress leaned up against the wall.  I was happy and grateful Mike got the mattress that far and had the time to unwrap it and make the bed so don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining.

     As I’ve said before, we’re busy people and if something isn’t in the public eye then it isn’t a priority.  There are too many other things we could or should be doing and having to shuffle around a mattress for months isn’t that big of a deal even if it’s in front of your only full length mirror. 

     I attempted to get to work on my computer yesterday but the mess of paperwork was distracting me.  My desk and filing cabinet are upstairs in my bedroom but I haven’t been able to work up there because of the glaring distraction of the mattress and other messes I hadn’t had time to take care of.  In the summer I work downstairs in the office or on the main level of my house at the kitchen table with my laptop. 

     It was time to get serious about organizing my paperwork so I went up the spiral stairs with loads of paperwork in my arms.  There the mattress leaned against the wall as it had since August.  See, the queen mattress we had couldn’t be made compact enough to take back down the spiral stairs and in order to get it out of our bedroom we have a trap door that opens up into Abby’s room.

     Anyone with a pre-teen daughter knows their rooms aren’t kept neat.  Before a mattress gets dropped down into her room there needs to be a relatively safe landing spot.  Her hanging quilt that disguises the trapdoor also has to be taken down and my monstruous desk must be moved out from in front of the trapdoor.  That means my filing cainets, stuff beneath my desk and everything else on the floor must be moved so the desk can be pushed out.  After accomplishing all of these tasks I just had to slide the mattress across my bedroom floor, squeeze it into the open space of the trapdoor and let it drop to Abby’s room.  Then I re-hung her quilt, finagled the trapdoor back into space, swept behind the desk, pushed the desk back into place, moved my filing cabinets back, swept the main floor and was ready to get at the paperwork.

     Unfortunately there was another distraction glaring at me from my vanity.  This called for immediate attention that would take the next few hours of my time.  Really.  It was something that had to be done. The drawers with curling irons I never use, beard trimmers that don’t work, 12 toothbrushes that are old and crusty, outdated hair products, lotions that had turned to solids, lip glosses, gaudy make-up, head bands from the 80’s, bottles of hotel shampoo, lotion, conditioner and you get the picture.  It just couldn’t wait another minute.  

     When I finished up cleaning the fried rice and new mess from last night’s dinner I went back to my upstairs office.  I finished going through all of the cosmetics and cotton balls but ran out of steam before I got to the paperwork.  So while the rice is gone and so is the mattress the pile of paperwork is still calling my name.  But so is the sun outside and I really have raking I want to get done and more chainsaw work and there are planters to be brought inside and deck furniture that needs to be moved and who knows how many other distractions that will get in my way?