I don't want dishes in the sink, Don't ask me what I feel or what I think

Does everyone say they'd like to have a minimalist type setting when they first move and if so how long does it take before they realize that the effort that goes into keeping a minimalist place minimal is actually maximal? I suppose I go back and forth between two extremes. Right now, I am dedicated to a minimal atomsphere. I don't want any clutter around or on my bookshelves, or in those little places where you hide stuff. I just want it clean. The key I think, is to throw things away.

For a while I planned on writing a book based on a man who dressed up in a bird costume everyday. It was suppose to be a metaphor for the hopes and aspirations that I have that never really take flight, like the book I planned on writing about a guy who dresses up in a bird costume. Well, he writes and draws so obsessively that he builds a nest out of the papers and scraps he marks on. His home and head begin to look like a nest. They have gathered the straw, dirt and dead hair of other peoples conversations.

I have some reservation about the word obsessive. I went to school with a girl in Buffalo who was always talking about how obsessive her artwork was. This girl drove me crazy. Obsessive does not mean you work hard on a painting for four hours or even five. When you meet someone who is truly obsessive about their work then you realize that the obsession is not something they think is cool. The obsession dominates not only their work but their lives. It is beyond their control. I think the word is too often misused.

The "obsessive" girl did a painting for my senior thesis class about nature. She said she did a painting and then wiped it all off of the canvas with 409 to symbolize the obsessive respect she had for nature and how we've ruined it and how it was clearer through the fourth dimension. She was one of those, "I already told you I'm enlightened" types. Students in the class really bought it and I think one of the teachers even got wrapped up a little bit in her heart felt obsession towards the work. When I couldn't control myself any longer I quietly asked her if she could list some of the ingredients of 409 and how they are influencing the environment. I should have said the 409 would be likely to be environmentall abscessive. Perhaps she could have obsessed about that. Another teacher who never bought her told her she might be interested in reading L. Ron Hubbard with a perfectly straight face. She didn't know who he was but man did that make me laugh.

For today, minimal is it. Less clutter, more... well I guess more less clutter. I guess I could have started with this post.