One of the actors from her last show said she would pay her $200 to live in her house for 12 days while she was away and watch her dog. Her house was only a few freeway exits down from her own, so she met up with her to meet the dog and get a feel for the house.
It was an adorable, small cottage type house. She decorated it like a beautiful Pier 1 Imports catalogue, and it was cluttered but homey. They sat on her couch and talked about the situation with the ex while the dog rolled around between them, lapping up the attention.
"Have you ever read Codependent No More?" She asked her. As she wasn't into self help books, she had not. She didn't see how it had anything to do with her either. She wasn't the Codependent one.
"You should treat your time here like a retreat, away from the things of man with only a dog and my books! It's going to be restorative and amazing for you! I'm excited for you, this is going to be a journey of self discovery." She smiled her charming, sweet smile. She was the kind of person who had been through a lot, but still wanted to see the good in everyone.
Because the two places were so close, she moved her stuff over in stages as she had time. The first night she sat down and turned on her giant TV, ready to catch up on all the regular stuff she had been missing. The donated TV she was given sat in the corner, too old to be compatible with anything and too heavy for the stand she had bought. There were $200 Smart TVs, and she planned on using the money from watching the dog to buy it. She needed to get rid of the old TV soon as well. She wasn't fond of the clutter it was causing. It had gone from a temporary spot to a permanent eyesore.
When she stepped into the house and greeted the dog, she realized the amount of trash and clutter was actually in the house. To a normal person it most likely seemed like regular clutter, but to her it was hovering into her mom's hoarder status house. There were dirty items in the sink, zero microwaveable plates, and hardly any silverware. How was she going to make it in this house for 12 days?
The cable was below the basic level. She might as well be watching her kindle at home, as it received more programming than this TV had. She found the Codependency book, along with another self help book, on the guest bed. She closed all the windows and turned on the AC. It was going to be over 90 degrees the whole time she was there, so she might as well start raking up the bills now.
As she walked around, the clutter started to get to her. There was so much stuff that could be organized, thrown away. She itched to throw things away. She couldn't concentrate on the codependency book. She wondered if that was a metaphor for something.
The first night, the dog kept waking her up to go out and she got maybe a full 3 hours of sleep. Yoga was difficult, and she was cranky. She had to go watch another dog for an hour, and she was so sluggish that she barely made it. She gathered the rest of her things, went to the sad house, and ordered pizza while watching bad movies on cable.
She was in for a really long week. She already missed her great view, and the city right below her, ready for the taking. Now she was back in a cluttered house, and it felt like death.
