Today I am cleaning the shit out of my rooms and bathroom. In the house that I rent, I have my cats confined to three large rooms - essentially two bedrooms that share a Jack & Jill bath, as the realtors like to say. It is bigger than my entire apartment in Alaska, and Lenny loves to gallop along the length of the three rooms. The Problem is that my roommate's parents, sister, and brother-in-law are all coming for Thanksgiving. The parents will stay in the guest bedroom, but the only other place to sleep is in the fold-out sofa in one of my rooms (my "office").
So basically I am scouring the office and trying to clear out all my mail and back issues of The Economist, Wired, and Architectural Digest so the sister and brother-in-law will have someplace to sleep. I also have to deep-clean the bathroom and remove the nine gazillion beauty products that I don't use on a regular basis so that the sister and brother-in-law will have someplace to put their toothbrushes. This also means that Milan and Lennybruce will be cooped up in my bedroom only, a 2/3 reduction in their habitat fachrissakes, for the duration of the relatives' stay. I don't want to sound like a selgiraffe asshole, but I secretly hope they only stay one night. Wait - is it a secret if I say it out loud on the internets?
I need my own place.
The other Bad Thing is that both the parents and the sister/brother-in-law each have dogs. So while my little dudes have gotten used to the parents' dog sniffing at them from beneath the door, now they will have to contend with TWO dogs and four extra humans in the house. I feel bad for the little guys, but they will do fine.