I vacuumed the refrigerator today

I vacuumed the refrigerator today and I don't just mean the coils underneath. It started out that way because I dropped a pill that rolled under the fridge into a forbidden land of dust bunnies and kitchen crud.  Naturally I decided to vacuum it up and call that my spring cleaning, but the next thing you know I had opened the fridge door and was vacuuming the shelves and the fruit and veggie bins.  Crazy, I know, but it works--sort of. It's not going to suck up congealed stains or messy globs of fluids that have sunk to the bottom level and started a colony, but it does a credible job on crumbs and loose food remnants. I wonder if this innovation would qualify for Hints from Heloise? Old timers will remember that name--a columnist and author who hated housework and had ingenious solutions for getting things done. Wow, I just googled her and she's still around:
http://www.heloise.com/


Well, people have asked me "What do you do all day?" and that's a hard question to answer. But, as you can see from above, when you're at home you have the creative license to meander into all kinds of interesting distractions. My set answer is that I maintain the MBCNetwork website, engage in various home projects and am trying to write the great American novel. 


The reality: I check my email which always leads to side forays into youtube or not to be missed websites like engrish.com or ifyouwatchitbackwards.com. I've been known to get a board member update list and google map the addresses to look at people's houses. (I know, a little creepy) I may have recently created a Facebook group page for people who have my same name  (Aren't you curious about people walking around with your name?)  I do sleep later in the morning and sometimes need an afternoon nap, reconnecting with my inner one year old self. I watch tv during lunch--one of my favorite recorded shows like The Good Wife or Glee or Thirty Rock, and sometimes that stretches out beyond the hour lunch break. I'm always enticed to call it a day and curl up and read, before making supper and doing a few yoga stretches. I try to keep my schedule open, so that there's not an activity a day.  Tuesdays, of course, are sacrosanct (Tuesday Movie Day).


I read somewhere that if you write a page a day, you'll have a novel by the end of the year. Seems simple enough, but here we are on day 84 of the new year and I have only 10 pages to show for my efforts.  The difference between real writers and people who say they are writers is this: writers write!  Hmm....maybe I should be writing a novel about the hilarious adventures of a person who thought they were a writer, but never got around to writing?


I empathize with the younger college generation on how hard it is to study, read and write with all the distractions.  Glad I went to college before personal computers, cell phones, facebook, the internet and email.  We had tv (I'm not that much of a dinosaur), but they were usually in the dorm lounge and a relatively small screen by today's standards.  Our main distractions were the usual suspects: food, drink, getting outside, hanging out with friends.


An important component of studying was always "unstudying"--how to take the proper break to re-energize, clear your mind and re-focus your attention. At Cornell, if you studied in the library, 9 pm was the designated ivy break and scores of students would descend from the stacks, the reading rooms, the study carrels in the undergrad and grad libraries for the cup of coffee and socialization at the student union. Some people never returned to the library after break, except to pick up their stuff, violating the first rule of study breaks--that they should not last too long. Since it was a "see and be seen" experience there were times when the break was not at all energizing or relaxing, but produced its own social anxiety.  Did you talk to so and so? Who was he with?  So much pressure! 


Happily, my breaks now involve no social pressure beyond the fact that I try to talk to another human being at least once a day. (My horrified book group insisted on it, when they heard my routine).  I try to remember that creativity requires a little wandering off the beaten path, but I've vowed to do no more vacuuming of weird places and a lot more writing. Back to the blank page....!