Sing it if you know the words

[cleolinda]

Internets, can I tell you how much cleaning sucks? Because it SUUUUUCKS. Cleaning sucks dirty hosewater. Cleaning sucks frat boys in Tijuana. Cleaning sucks maenad blood and LIKES IT.

The reason for this particular panic of cleaning is that the electricians are coming to check and/or replace my electrical sockets today (so that I won't fry my new computer, whenever I order it), and not only did I have to clean out just for them to get into the room, I then realized that there are outlets behind my bed, dresser, and TV cabinet, so I had to clean enough behind/around them so that people stronger than I am can move them and reveal the dustbunny horrors beneath, but there it is. (I do begin to understand why my allergies are so bad, though.) Everything had to be moved, drawers had to be emptied, apparently I have enough DVDs to stock a small video store, so on and so forth. Internets, I am tired.

Meanwhile, my favorite new iPhone app is the Goddess Tarot--one of my favorite decks for artwork anyway--and you can use it to do a one-card... draw... oracle... thing... whatever. I tend to ask (mentally), "What do I need to know for today?," and this is what I got just now:

The Nine of Staves presents a portrait of total exhaustion. It feels like completion is close, yet so far away! The lesson offered by this card is one of patience--though success is close at hand, we need to rest first.

THANKS, GODDESS TAROT.

(As a side note, Brian Froud's Faerie Oracle deck, which you can actually use online, is one of my favorites in terms of the way the cards actually resonate with me. The icon up there is from the Faeries artwork as well.)

Also, I drafted another (very) short story last night, but typing that up will have to wait, because: electricians.

Comments

[maetang.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the Faerie Oracle link. I just had a really good reading from it!

All the best with the electricians. I hope they fix your outlets once and for all.

[khaman.livejournal.com]

Mythic and Dragon tarot have always worked best for me, although I've always wanted a copy of Froud's. Thanks for the link!

[edda.livejournal.com]

I think it's telling you to rest for a bit. I mean, I would. But of course I do that even when I have nothing to rest from.

*fixes you a mojito*

[ctina.livejournal.com]

I don't know why, but every time you reference the electricians, I imagine them arriving in brown jumpsuits with a vacuum apparatus on their backs, a la ghostbusters.

[robinmc.livejournal.com]

Probably because the idea of Cleo's outlets being haunted by a ghost (or several) is not that far-fetched at this point.

[lost-garnet.livejournal.com]

Brilliant marketing strategy, but also a horrifying re-vamp (you'll pardon the pun) of a classic -

(http://s48.photobucket.com/albums/f219/phansim/?action=view&current=twilight-wuthering-heights-emily-br.jpg)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've seen a couple of different Twilight-themed covers for that one. Man, are they in for a surprise...

[lisa-zj.livejournal.com]

Ahhh Cleo, thanks so much for the giggles that I needed so badly this morning! This:

Cleaning sucks frat boys in Tijuana. Cleaning sucks maenad blood and LIKES IT. :)

Yeah, that last thing was pretty gross though, wasn't it? Here's hoping the electricians will come in and make everything safe for the new laptop when you order it. And can't wait for whatever you put together to sell (KINGS, Caroline, KINGS!!!!). I'll buy it!

[troubleinchina.livejournal.com]

Having done that particular brand of OMG!Cleaning last week because we were going away for a week and I was convinced the flat would flood and the landlords would come in and ... yeah, anyway:

I FEEL YOUR PAIN.

It worked out good for me, and we're cheering for you.

[lylassandra.livejournal.com]

The first time I realized other parts of the country knew about TJ, I was shocked. I thought it was just a local SD thing.

[cassildra.livejournal.com]

I love the Froud Fairy Oracle Deck! Thanks for the online link.

[internal666.livejournal.com]

Yay, now I don't have to buy my own tarot deck right away =D

[sucrelefey.livejournal.com]

I hope they are doing more than just the socket boxes since you don't need expensive professionals for that.

[cherryfruit.livejournal.com]

I totally bought the Faerie Oracle this week, and I love it. Froud's art is so gorgeous!

[bya-san.livejournal.com]

I guess there's a cleaning bug going around...I spent the entire morning "cleaning" my office, which mostly involved relocating everything on my desk to the dining room table so I could dust. Let me tell you, my house must have this giant dust magnet underneath it or something because it seems like no matter how often you dust the place, it comes back WITH A VENGEANCE.

[fading-october.livejournal.com]

You make me feel guilty because I have a house visit (trying to get custody of my boyfriend's daughter) with CPS and I just moved into the house so not only do I have to clean, I have to unpack and CLEAN with very little pieces of furniture because the house I just left, I let some of my stuff sit with my old roommates who proceeded to destroy everything I didn't take with me. This includes my Asus. When I found it, it was gutted and the rest of it was in the back yard. Police say since I can't prove it was them, I'm screwed. x.x

But I also have to do ALL OF THE LAUNDRY OMG. I now live next to my mom. My house doesn't have water turned on yet, so I have to take all of my clothes from my house's basement to mom's basement. It's a situation I seriously DNW. x.x It needs to get done though because bf just started work and currently has no decent working-man clothes and CPS is coming Friday and here I am typing away on a computer procrastinating. Just one more thing, I keep telling myself, just one more thing. x.x

But it seems my sister has started the dishwasher over here so WHOO more laundry procrastination. but I will get started on the guinea page after I make my weekly randompictures post. x.x

[elbales]

Your ex-roommates need to be smacked upside the head with a rotting mackerel. That's heinous. I'm so sorry to hear it!

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Oh well. I hope, in the spirit of making lemonade from lemons, that this will be a chance to vacuum a lot of dust bunnies. I'm picturing their death agonies:

"ONOZ WE ARE BEING SUCKED INTO A GIANT TUBE PLS SEND HELP!"

and the dolls just watch from their shelf. But finally an Edward speaks out:

"First they came for the Dust Bunnies, but I was not a Bunny..."

[soleta-nf.livejournal.com]

I think an interesting SLOD, when this is all over, would be a retrospective from the dolls' perspective.

[soleta-nf.livejournal.com]

Yay progress! You'll be happy with your tidier room later, I promise.

[kauricat.livejournal.com]

This does not seem fair, coming so soon after you worked on cleaning the rest of the house for the family reunion.

I'm kind of wondering what the electricians will find out. I mean, is your "lucky streak" over and they'll say "Everything's peachy" or will they run away screaming after examining the esoteric web that is Casa de Cleo's wiring?

[xerinmichellex.livejournal.com]

Gah! This reminds me that I need to clean my room. I've been putting it off for weeks now. It was so much easier when I had carpeted floors--you couldn't see how dirty I really get.

I think you should heed to that tarot card and REST. If anyone deserves to, it's you, Cleo.

[ailaes.livejournal.com]

I've found that other than the Oracle Deck, Jessica Galbreth's Enchanted Oracle works good with one card drawings as well. Plus the artwork is absolutely stunning.

[persian-freak.livejournal.com]

Cleaning sucks maenad blood and LIKES IT.
I am fully using that in conversations from now on.
That shit was messed up!

[munin-and-hugin.livejournal.com]

Icon <3!

[diddakoi.livejournal.com]

You're on a short story hot streak lately! Good for you. When you talk about selling short stories, where would you sell them to? A magazine? A short story collection that would be published in a book?

Good luck with the electricians. Offer them brownies. Baked goods always help.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I honestly have no idea--that's what I let my agent worry about. : )

[r-a-black.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link. Coincidentally I've been trying to learn about tarot this past week and was up all night looking at various decks. I figured I'll just stop being worried about any weird questions I might get from... anyone.

[diddakoi.livejournal.com]

Oh, and speaking of cleaning, I have been going through the detritus of my life since moving back in with my parents. I have to consolidate all the stuff from the first 18 years of my life with the stuff from the last six, and make it all fit in one room. Gah. It's reminded me of when you were cleaning your closet, especially because I made a list of the contents of one of my drawers:

- baptism candle
- butter tub full of shells
- POGS
- home-made toy parachute
- three commemorative baseballs, commemorating when the Orioles actually won things
- jaw harp I bought at Valley Forge and never learned to play
- glasses from the fourth grade
- Armitron collectible Garfield watch
- Disney World autograph book
- button that says Jesus loves me
- tooth fairy box
- about 12 rocks
- wooden flute I never learned to play
- film canister which once housed a home-made Girl Scout first aid kit
- the last page of Pat the Bunny
- The Night Before Christmas pop-up book
- a dolphin picture frame from Rehobeth beach (no picture)
- ribbony headband from the second grade, now unravelling
- tag for Beanie Baby knockoff, since lost
- thin white gloves, sized for fourth grade hands
- case for a dream catcher necklace I loved in middle school
- magnetic whiteboard that hung in my high school locker

Also: do you have any advice for living peacefully with parents after having lived independently for several years?

[deepbluemermaid.livejournal.com]

I'm in a similar situation - back living with parents, at the age of 30, after 5 years of living alone on the other side of the world! If I can jump in here with some advice:

- volunteer to help around the house, and do things before you're asked; offer to cook, even if you can't afford to pay for groceries. Having an assigned list of chores might help.

- make sure you get out of the house as much as you can, even if you're unemployed / poor. I live a fair distance from the city, where all my friends are, but I try to go in every weekend and see / stay with my friends. It's good for my mental health, to get out of the house and spend time with people other than my parents!

- it's so easy to fall back on behavioural patterns from your childhood / teens, and for your parents to still treat you like a kid. Trying to behave like a reasonable adult can get you treated like one, but you might still have to remind them that you're grown-up now. Of course, if you're financially dependent on them, this is a tricky line to negotiate...

- getting to know your parents as adults is an interesting process. I've heard a lot of new stories about the extended family, and about my parents' history, than I ever heard as a kid.

- it's hard to modify some long-term lifestyle habits (eg staying up until 4am and sleeping till noon, being online all the time, downloading huge files on a fast college connection...er, yes, I speak from experience on all of these) to fit with your parents' habits. I now go to bed at midnight and my Dad gets up at 6, so I have learnt to creep around very quietly late at night and he's considerate of me in the mornings. I have also had to adjust to a 2GB bandwidth cap per month *sob*, so I now get my friends to download big files for me!

[munin-and-hugin.livejournal.com]

"sucks maenad blood"

Huzzah! I was itching to talk about that episode last night at work, but as I work in a classroom (not a teacher or TA) that would not be conducive to learning.

BUT HOLY DANG, ALAN BALL IS ALREADY SLIPPING IN THE FEY STUFF! XD

[sachielle.livejournal.com]

I LOVE the Goddess Tarot. i own that deck in the physical, not digitally based sense and it has been the most reliable deck I've ever owned. Now I have something in common with a famous internet person. Go me!