I’m trying to get control of this desk. New papers show up from anywhere to obscure the surface and it clogs the mental flow, task approach and completion. I bought a shredder to straddle the garbage can and I enjoy watching the thing spit out paper spaghetti so much I’m shredding everything that will fit in that mighty slit.

In the kitchen I’m pulling up the old, turquoise-colored contact paper illustrated with cartoony espresso cups (how very 90's Seattle) that was installed by some former, tasteless tenant, and replacing it with white. Just clean, crisp white. No leaves or etchings or kitscheny icons to clutter already crowded shelves. This puts me under the sink and at the backs of drawers, places I’d rather only my least-used appliances know so intimately. I’m finding grease and other renegade splatters bivouacked there in high and tight corners. This has prompted a mission to “spring clean” the kitchen, a day-by-day process sandwiched between other tasks — these days often cleaning-related ones. And what I’m finding is nothing illuminates the need for painting like cleaning. What do you suppose the chances are of getting the owners to agree to paint my kitchen? It could go either way, I think. Just white, clean crisp white. It won’t match the floor or the countertop, but the floor and countertop don’t, and won’t ever, match. Besides, I have a plan, a stainless steel plan, for the white...

We’re leaving for Hawaii next Thursday. The place will be cleaned for the clean return.