My room is cold!

It's late fall in New England, although if you're going by New England standards and not actual equinox/solstice dates, it's winter for sure.  It's been consistently freezing (30°F highs) for the past week.  And I have issues.

Many people who know me well know that I have problems with being organized and clean.  I'm working very hard right now to keep my work life organized in every way possible, and I'm making some headway (been helping organize common areas that have been messy since I got here a year and a half ago, cataloging protocols, making master lists of freezers, etc.).  Now it feels like all of that energy directed at work is sapping my energy to be responsible at home.  My room got pathetically disgusting for an entire month.  Horrendously, embarrassingly gross.  Coming home was upsetting for me because of how terrible my room was.

Gathering up the energy to clean my room became more and more difficult.  Halfway through the month, I was thinking about starting to clean when I was struck down with illness.  As I've detailed earlier, I got sick with a weird mild virus on Saturday after Thanksgiving, which turned into a sinus infection, which turned into a pretty decently bad chest cold.  I'm still recovering; I've got congestion still and my voice is still what I call my man-voice.  It's going to be difficult to sing karaoke on Monday!

While sick, getting to the grocery store for essential food items was my only priority besides sleeping.  I ended up with plates, bowls, and mugs (formerly containing either soup or tea) in my room, along with clothes strewn about, trash, Loki's mess (he took a bath in his seeds, and now that he has wings, he likes to fly everywhere, pooping and molting), and everything else.  I had done some major laundry back in November, including my comforter cover.  I still hadn't made my bed (like, sheets, not making things look nice).  Oh, it was bad.  Very bad.

So I was sick, and then it got freezing.  Because of the mess, I hadn't yet put shrink wrap on my windows (it's effective, by the way).  I also hadn't taken out my AC unit from the window right next to my bed.  There were reasons, all related to the mess.  With the mess, it was difficult to get to the AC.  And there was nowhere to put the AC once it was out.  And I couldn't invite even a roommate in the room to help me remove the unit because of how embarrassing the mess was!

The other night, I was so cold that I allowed Loki to nap on my warm computer.  I also made the mistake of warming my hands by sticking them under my laptop.

Do not warm your hands by sticking them under a hot laptop.  At the time, it felt nice and it helped.  Now, I've discovered first degree burns on the backs of my fingers and hands.  Not joking.  WHOOPS.

Last night, I had a field day cleaning my room.  It's not finished.  In terms of general presentation, I need to put away my clean clothes, put my dirty clothes in my hamper, throw out 3 bags of trash, get rid of a bunch of boxes and other trash, donate a bag of clothes, put some items away, clean Loki's cage, and vacuum.* Tonight, I got home too late, but when I have time this weekend, I'll finish up, and weatherize those stupid windows!  And then maybe my room won't be so darn cold.**

* In terms of real cleaning?  I need to throw out a ton of shit that's in my closet and storage unit.

** Yes, I've thought about the heat.  But it'll drive up our utilities, it's stupid to turn on the heat when I literally have a WINDOW OPEN, and I'm also reasonably sure the heat in my room doesn't work.  I don't know for sure, and it would be stupid to call the landlord to complain if I have a WINDOW OPEN.