housesitting

I'm housesitting this week for a coworker at the paper. I like her. She has a giant, friendly, slobbery dog and two cats. I like them. Two out of three of them like me. Last night I spent the night at the house and learned a couple things about myself.

1) I have a hard time with clutter. Messes I can clean (dishes, laundry, general dirt/dust) are fine. I can clean them. Clutter makes me claustrophobic and panicky. This fact is slightly ironic, as anyone who has seen my desk or my childhood home will catch. So I felt restless and jumpy.

2) I get lonely pretty quickly. I have never lived by myself. I have spent a few days at a time here and there by myself, but mostly I am surrounded by people. And I like it. I am a social being. Spending those 11 hours at the house with no people drove me crazy. I was so desperate for human company, I chatted with my boss for a long time and followed him upstairs. Yeah. Community. I hope this is a normal and healthy and we-were-created-for-community thing and not a neurosis thing. So, I didn't sleep much.

Meanwhile, I am thoroughly enjoying my new pants! We had a clothing exchange/drive at group last night and sorted through over 10 bags of clothing. I am now the proud owner of amazing pants, a red shirt, and a cool purse that all belonged to different girls. Hurrah! And now we get to give the rest of the bags away. Hurrah!