Tomorrow night I’m hosting my writers group meeting. In addition to worrying about what to serve, before all that creative energy converges in my apartment, I will have to clean the place too. I’ve decided cleaning is a little like proofreading. Let me explain.
After much frustration, I’ve finally discovered that there is in fact a way to find every single error and typo in my own email messages, and this method consists of going ahead and actually sending the message, then reading it over. Any errors I missed the first fifteen or twenty times I proofed the email before clicking send become glaringly obvious the second after I do.
Similarly, I never really notice how dusty my place is, or how many ink stains are Rorschach-ing my couch, until I have a guest over. Then, as we’re watching a movie or eating dinner or whatever, without meaning to I find my eyes roving over the bookshelves as I think to myself, “Did my copy of the Oxford English Dictionary get even thicker, or could that extra inch really be dust?”
I’m hoping that any areas of the apartment I accidentally neglect in my spastic cleaning mission will be ignored by my writers group tomorrow in favor of lively conversation about our pages. Just in case though, I’m not above resorting to chocolate and wine. I’ve found that in almost any situation, both can be a fantastic distraction.
