This house...is clean.

A lot of little things in my life require some sort of catalyst to kick my ass into action. During my busy season at work, my apartment's cleanliness suffered the most. I just haven't been able to motivate myself to clean up around here for the past month and a half. Well, it took a promise I made to my friend's daughter a long time ago to get me to clean this place up.

A couple months ago, Ivy got a brand new, high end digital camera. While hanging out at their house, she was geeking out over the camera, and flippantly mentioned that she needs to go buy a tripod. I told her that I had a tripod that I haven't used but a couple times since I bought it four years ago. Knowing her love for photography, and knowing that I sure as hell wasn't gonna be using it anytime in the near future, I offered to give her the tripod.

Ever since, I have been forgetting to bring her the tripod, and have been reminded every single time. On Friday, as I was out the door to go to my buddy Tony's birthday party, Ivy got proactive and called me to remind me not to forget it. I went into the closet and retrieved the tripod, but quickly noticed that the most crucial part was missing, i.e. the part that attaches to the camera. So, I took an extra few minutes tearing the place apart to find it, but to no avail.

So, my place was beyond the level of pig sty...at least you can walk around in a pig sty. No, my apartment was looking like post-war Berlin. Saturday was too busy for me to do any substantial cleaning, but today, I had nothing better to do.

Four trash bags full of junk, three rounds of dishes, and a big pile of dirty laundry (to be done later this week...still got clean clothes left), and this place is clean...er. I still got a little bit of straightening up to do, but at least I won't be as embarrassed to have company over.

The best part? I found the missing part to the tripod. But, Ivy is off to New York for a week, so no rush in getting it to her.

And none of it was possible if a 15 year old hadn't nagged me one last time to keep my promise. Thanks, kiddo!