In the month since my last post, I went through construction in two areas of my apartment, which was mandated by the building management because of an upcoming renovation project. So my place is a little better, but I still have a lot of cleaning and packing and storing to do in the other part of the space, which is still full of books and magazines and videos. A lot of dust to clean up. As I said in my previous entry, I don't really want to write too much about it, just get it done...

But I will say that cleaning a cluttered apartment is not unlike the experience I had when I wrote my (as-yet-unsold) novel last summer. Stress, frustration, then exaltation when progress is clearly made.

When the place is done and straightened up, it will definitely be better. It's better already, because now I have reclaimed my kitchen as a cooking area. I will not use it as a storage space for books and magazines and videos ever again. I hope to put a small table into it, so I can eat there too. So far I've been just making soups and coffee and sandwiches, but I'll eventually move onto more advanced repasts.

Haven't been to the stripclubs in three and a half weeks. I was tempted to go last Friday, until I noticed I had a 40% off coupon from Borders that would expire that night. So instead I picked up the box set of The Streets of San Francisco, a show I never watched in the 70s but which sounds pretty good now with its lineup of actors. It cost me $26, or the price of approximately one and a third lapdances. Karl Malden and Michael Douglas made a good team of detectives. In the episode I watched last night, Janice Rule played a call girl stalked by a deranged religious fanatic, portrayed by James Olsen. She was quite an attractive actress and did a good job with the role.

Have to get back to trying to sell my novel. I have to redo the synopsis for submission to agents since I rewrote the ending. It's funny, the book was such a preoccupation for so long, but now it seems a part of my past, as my mind and body get swallowed up in this colossal effort to unclutter my living space. But that's how the mind works.