Clean Up Woman

For the past 3 or 4 months I've been getting a spiritual nudge to pack.  Initially it was direct, "pack up all of those items on top of your cabinets.  Contrary to my usual procrastinating self, I lifted from the couch and packed them.  These are valuables such as:

• two statues from Nigeria
• Masks from western Africa
• set of old books given by my aunt
• my father's folded flag from his coffin with the last picture I took of him inside
• a plate passed down to me made by my grandmother's grandmother when she was a slave

So some really important stuff!

About 2 weeks later, I noticed discoloring in the ceiling. With the slow move of my landlord, it turned into a full blown leak. Some how caulking was supposed to fix a leaky pipe.  Okay Girl... Thank God I listened or those valuables would have been ruined.

And then stepped in the lazy.

That's where I stopped.  The Universe was nudging.  I would say to Little, "Girl we a moving.  We are buying a place. (insert me pulling up said place on the internet) Look at your room.  What color do you want on the wall.  How do you want your bed?"  Literally I have a folder of the floor plan, pictures of decor and information on the builders. Even called my son...let's call him Bear.. and told him of my feeling.  His response..."How many bedrooms mom?"   To which I responded, "3," much to his relief.  Because...spoiled.  He's 23.  Living on his own.  But I get it, you always want a place at Mom's.

Additionally I had dreams.  Several dreams.  Dreams of fixing up my house in NC.  It's a family house left to me by my grandfather, who was the builder.  Lot's of signs.  Never the less, I packed nothing.  Well I packed my stomach full of food, but details...

So here comes the week before Halloween.  I keep seeing boxes, so I finally grabbed one.  Actually a co-worker was filling her drawer with bags of popcorn.  I ran over, because greedy, and saw the box.  Took the box and not the popcorn.  Priorities.  Then I went downstairs to the food cafe for lunch...soup.  Adonis was unpacking a large box and so I took that too.  I sent a text to Little, excited about my finds and exclaimed, "I'm going to pack some books to donate."  Her response, "Thank God!"  Whatever!

To be fair, I had two bookcases full of books.  When I say full, I mean exploding.  Spilling out like lava.  Basically, an educated mess is what I had.  So I get home that night and began the book purge.  It was like giving away my children.  Which meant it was slow going.  In steps Little with her bossy self, willing to "help".  Ok willing to be judgy on my volume of books, their age and type.  "Did you join a book club? Because these rom-com books say you were a mom 'tired of this life with the kids and I need some girlfriends and wine'!"  Why is she judging my literary life?  I also had a bunch of political books about Central America, mystery, text books and general books from black authors.  Oh and several Bibles.  Little Judgment was trying to figure out why I had so many Bibles but didn't go to church.  Bye girl...

We end up filling both boxes.  Keep in mind these are large boxes that some person will be happy to receive.  If only I would put them in the car.  But that's another post...

Even though we finished that task, I had the feeling there was still more to pack.  Alas, lazy won and celebrated the completion of task 2 out of 132.  Small victories.  And I stopped there, which only served to piss off my Spirit Guides.  My angels and ancestors said "Move NOW!" Yet I sat on my butt like a defiant child.  Then came Friday.

I get home Friday evening, ready for a restful weekend.  Maybe I would finally catch up on Luke Cage.  Maybe I would binge watch more Behati Life videos.  Maybe I would do anything other than my planned exercises and pack.   So I went to bed.  I was awakened by a beeping noise and flashing blue lights reflecting off the hallway walls.  I race to Little's room, who was looking out the window.  A house across the street caught on fire, and a bunch of people were on the sidewalk in front of our place.  I live in an urban area with multi-family houses.  I also live in a neighborhood with a variety and mix of cultures.  Which means, I could only catch some of the information by being the nosy neighbor listening from the window.

I look over at the tv and Little informs me that the firemen cut the fiber optic wire.  DANGER WILL ROGERS!!  We don't have cable and watch tv via internet services.  This means...WE.HAD.NOTHING!  <cue dramatic soap opera moment>

The provider was closed so I had to wait until 8 am to call.  My alarm was set for 7:45 am.  I call, they set the time to come by noon.  SET.  My guides were like "no time like the present girl, pack and purge."  So I began cleaning the apartment, starting with my room first.  The Universe rewarded my efforts by sending the technician over early.  9 am to be exact.  The Universe was also trolling me because my neighbors had their gate locked and we could not get in to fix the wire.  But nothing to worry about, because technician said he'd come back and gave me his cell to call when they opened the gate.  All set right?

I continue cleaning and packing.  During this time I was able to purge shoes and purses for donation.  Threw away old papers.  Packed other shoes and organize my room.  I get another form of applause from my guides because my neighbor came outside.  Ok so let's be honest here.  I had the windows open in the living room so I could hear any movement and run out.  A few times the squirrels ran through trees and I ran outside like an addict looking for my dealer.  He tells me to ring both doorbells and someone will come out to unlock the gate and move the car.  GREAT!  So I call technician.  No response.  I figure, he's probably doing a job so I can text and badda bing badda boom, he'll call back.  An hour goes by.  Another hour goes by.  Finally a third hour, and I hear nothing from him.  Meanwhile, the house is getting cleaned.

Rolling in to hour 4, and I get a text saying my case has been closed.  Not today Satan!  I call the customer center, and an operator gets in touch with the technician.  He states that the technician will come back after he finishes up the current job.  It may be late but not to worry.  I'm like cool, I can wait.

I wait...
And wait...
Wait some more...

I go out and buy a dvd player because the old one broke some time back, and I finally organized our dvds.

Still waiting...

When the moon replaced the sun as the light in the sky, I knew I was stood up.  So I called the customer center and they scheduled me for....Monday between 2 and 4 pm.  I wanted to cry.  How was I going to survive the weekend.  Then it hit me...these are all privileged people problems.  Also, I accomplished so much during the day that should have been completed months ago.  We rearranged Little's room.  Purged so many things.  Had several items for donation and packed the items that aren't serving us right now.  The atmosphere shifted in the house.  Energy freely flows.  And we now have a DVD player.  Did I mention I have unlimited data on our phone plan?  Right.

Monday rolls around...the Universe answers in kind to my efforts by having a new technician come early and fix the internet.  I thanked the Universe by mopping the kitchen.  Lesson Learned.