Cleaning like a.. cleaning fiend

When I was young, I hated cleaning. My mom was like the cleaning Nazi, and while I know now that it was great, when I was young I always felt like our home was so clean that it was almost sterile. It was so clean that you felt like you couldn't do anything in it, because then you would have to do the work to get it that clean again.

Perhaps because of that, perhaps because of laziness, or a little bit of both, when I got out of high school and moved on, I almost basked in messiness. Silly, yeah. It's what happened though.

That's why since I've had this new apartment, I've been surprised at how clean I've kept it. I clean at least every other night, vacuum often and tidy up daily. I'm finding that I enjoy the clean feeling and a tidy atmosphere.

I'm having a few difficulties though.

The first difficulty is that I'm a pack-rat. I like to hold on to everything, largely because I hate the idea of wanting or needing something and not having it because I tossed it. For example, I have a book of all the A/G Churches, and of all the A/G Pastor's addresses I picked up a few sumers ago when I was interning. I'm not licensed, so I don't get a copy of it or have access to the web records available to A/G pastors, but so many of my friends are pastors that I want it, in case I never need to contact someone. It's from 2005 though, so it's losing accuracy (average youth pastor stay at a church is just over a year, senior pastors are 3 years). I probably should toss them. I think I will.

The second difficulty is buying what I need. I'm not the most organized, list oriented person, so I find myself making a lot of trips to do something that should and could have been done in one trip. Whether it's grocery shopping, mailing, or picking up household items like paper towels, I make too many trips.

The last difficulty I'm facing is I'm in love, and I'm far, far away from the woman I'm in love with. I want to be married to her and sharing this apartment with her, but it's not time yet.

*Boom* Goes the Engine

4 weeks ago. 9:00 a.m.. My potential future father-in-law checks the oil future brother-in-law's Grand Marquis and finds it is 4 quarts low.

Fast forward to Sunday, June 8.
My girlfriend and I are in a caravan of a Honda CR-V and a Grand Marquis. She is driving her brother's Grand Marquis back from his wedding. He has been in New Hampshire for a day. Under the hood of his car, a worn valve train is chattering up and down in a furious harmony of timed chaos. Suddenly, a spring on one of cylinder 3's valves pops. While the vehicle is still drivable, the engine is instantly destroyed - it is only a matter of time until the engine locks up.

And this is what I'm dealing with today in Memphis, TN.

My Mattress Will Soon Be Here

I'd like some of ya'll's opinion: Was I dumb to order a queen size mattress, anticipating marrying in the next two years? Whether I was dumb, or not, it will be here next Tuesday!

Busier Than a Hen Picking Up Corn with a broken beak

Sorry, the title is the best I could come up with. I don't take much time when I write a blog - just fire out what's on my mind and publish it without any revision.

I'm working on launching the third incarnation of my company's website. We're using a "zipped" design written in php that will allow us to change everything site wide by editing 3 files - the only thing unique to each page will be its content, headers, and meta tag. Transferring over everything is taking a long time, but I think it will be worth it long term as part of our broad SEO strategy.

I'm enjoying the apartment. It's cheap to cool it, and I sleep better when it's cold. Thus, I'm sleeping better and am more alert during the day.

Sarah is at her parents right now. She fixed their lawnmower by replacing the belts on it and is now mowing her parent's yard. She's great. You might think I'm dumb, but one of the things I look forward to one day with her is working on our yard. It may be a while before we have a yard though. I mean, we're not married, she has to finish grad school, I have to finish school, I'm getting more tied to Memphis than I thought...

Such is life.

My advice for the day - five people to cultivate good relationships with

This is completely unspiritual, btw. Well, 80%.

You need to be tight with your pastor, lawyer, doctor, mechanic, and gunsmith.

That's it. Have a nice day.