Cleaning down this mess.

My house has turned into a kind of bottomless pit in the last few months, and all I've been able to do to try and keep up with its disintegration is to make neater piles when people come over. But now I'm starting to fear that my life itself is going to start mirroring the house, and so this afternoon I have decided that it's time to invoke Jane Eyre, roll up my (absent) sleeves, and get to work at making this mess right again.

"What aim, what purpose, what ambition in life have you now?" [says St. John Rivers to Jane.]

"My first aim will be to clean down (do you comprehend the full force of the expression?) -- to clean down Moor-House from chamber to cellar; my next to rub it up with bees-wax, oil, and an indefinite number of cloths, till it glitters again; my third, to arrange every chair, table, bed, carpet, with mathematical precision; afterwards I shall go near to ruin you in coals and peat to keep up good fires in every room; and lastly, the two days preceding that on which your sisters are expected, will be devoted by Hannah and me to such a beating of eggs, sorting of currants, grating of spices, compounding of Christmas cakes, chopping up of materials for mince-pies, and solemnizing of other culinary rites, as words can convey but an inadequate notion of to the uninitiated like you. My purpose, in short, is to have all things in an absolutely perfect state of readiness." ....

"It is all very well for the present," said he: "but seriously, I trust that when the first flush of vivacity is over, you will look a little higher than domestic endearments and household joys."

(Jane Eyre ch. 34)

On the other hand, perhaps I will just take to the breezy couch and sleep while I can, while this edgy fatigue hangs on me like a heavy garment it's too warm to wear.