the big cleanse

Here it is the 6th of January and my Christmas decorations are still up. You would think I didn't know that all magic, even Christmas magic, has a dark side. The dark side to Christmas magic is that on the stroke of midnight, when the calendar rolls over to December 26th, all Christmas decorations become sad and cluttered looking.

I couldn't help it really. Usually I have the glitter and bobbles wrapped and carefully tucked away before New Years. But I was out of town and so we had to return to a house that felt like a ghost town. Remains of what used to be.

So today is the day. I am ordering in sushi for lunch and I have coerced Jenny into coming over under the guise of a relaxing afternoon. I'll butter her up with a spicy salmon hand roll and put her to work.

I actually began my thorough cleaning project yesterday starting on the boy. It was back to school day and high time to scrub behind the ears and clip back fingernails caked with play dough. I scrubbed his head and checked his armpits. He cried out once or twice at the inhumanity of my project, but in the end he succumbed.


Oh happy day! Back to school! After dropping him off at his classroom, I had a knee jerk reaction to go get a cocktail. Then I remembered, oh yeah, my new diet, and then, oh yeah, I don't drink. So I went home and thoroughly enjoyed a ridiculously long, hot, kid-free shower and ate an entire tangerine without having to share one single segment.