Project Kengikat

Clean Up Friday

// June 18th, 2010 // Animals, Health and Fitness, Me Time

Today was a pretty quiet day for Dodger and I, just a few walks and a lazy day on the sofa. I took the day off from the gym because I am really sore from the past two days. No pain, no gain is just a bunch of BS. I am not trying to hurt myself to prove some silly point.

The one thing that I really wanted to get done today was doing a major clean to my apartment. My place isn’t that large, but there are 5 windows, 4 of which are large, plus my place sits over a fairly busy street, so there’s lots of dirt that gets in. I do my best to keep it pretty clean, but there are times when I need to do what I did today. What I like to call  ”deep cleaning”. During this cleaning I move all the furniture, sweep the baseboards and then I place some carpet fresh on the carpet. It takes about an hour to get it all done.

Before moving the furniture I make sure I have already done the dishes, cleaned thebathroom and the counter tops. Today I had to also clean off the table. The table tends to be a place where I place things that never seem to move. So there a great deal of time was spent getting things where they belong, most of which was the trash and a small amount needed to be filed away or put in areas where I could see them so I wont forget they are due.

Most times Dodger gets really nervous when I start to clean because he knows sooner or later I will be running the vacuum cleaner and he doesn’t care too much for that. However today meant that his favorite spot perched on the back of the sofa looking out the window would be a no go. He also doesn’t like when I move the sofa with him on it.

I also wanted to focus on recreating my “sacred space” as well as making space for my ceramics that I’ve been bringing home. This meant that I was going to have to move some things around in order to make space for all the new pieces. I have this really cool leather chest that I received from my friends Krystal and Patrick that use to sit near the sofa and arm chair, but today I moved it near the bog window so it could hold my plants and ceramics while creating a really cool space. There was a smaller table that I had in the entry hallway now located in living room that holds my FAITH cross, rocks and some really cool pieces I created.

I also needed to sort my laundry, change the sheets on my bed and sort my recycling. Dodger’s bowl needed to be cleaned, water bottle on his water station also needed to be changed as well. This meant I needed to clean the area where the bottle screws in to make sure no dust or dirt there that could get into his water. My little baby also needed a bath and then a good brushing after.

Once I finished all of this it was time for our afternoon walk. We usually go for a longer walk in the afternoon, but today Dodger seemed to be a bit tired. He wasn’t walking at his normal pace and when I turned at a corner where we never go to head back, he gave me nu fuss. In fact he seemed very happy. When we got back home, jumped up on the sofa for me to remove his collar and harness and went right over to his bed and curled up. However once I got settled and relaxed on the sofa, he ran over and jumped on me and we took our nap.

This evenings walk Dodger had his swagger back and was all over the place. Since he had somuch energy we went for a long walk and he seemed to like this just fine. On our way home we ran into Maggie and Sally. They live near us and Dodger is always on his best behavior whenever he sees Sally. This time he saw he before I noticed they were up ahead and he started pulling.

I gave my friend Audrey a call to see how she was doing and I am so glad I did that, because once again we had such a great conversation and I was able to learn more about her as well as discover that she is a pretty strong, brave amazing woman was has been through so much in her life. What is so inspiring to me is that she has this beautiful spirit and this energy that is so powerful. We spent over an hour talking and laughing.

I was feeling ok after talking to Audrey, so I thought I would head to the gym, but right as I started to walk to the door Dodger went crazy, as if he knew I was about to leave him and this was going against my plans. I walked out anyway, but he kept it up and did not stop. I was outside the building and walking towards the gym and I could still hear him. Dodger never does this, so I gave in and came back. When I sat down on the sofa, he ran to lick my face and then back to his favorite spot. I simply shook my head and said “Ok Dodger, you win” He turned and barked twice and went back to looking out the window.

Clean up Friday was awesome. I took it easy and spent the entire day with Dodger, talked with with two friends and returned some emails. I am ending my day by burning some sage, ringing my bell and lighting some candles….oh yeah a really hot bubble bath.