a whole new world...

When I know people are coming to visit, or when I feel I need to be more efficient in heating my house, I close up the guest room. I run the vacuum, make the bed (well, usually*), and shut the door. Hopefully the lovely Domestic Goddess who appears at my house once a month is coming sometime between when I discover you are going to visit and when you arrive, because then she will clean even more thoroughly and shut the door.

This way the room is as free of cat hair and dander as is possible in this house. And when you come to visit, you won't be sleeping in a bed of cat hair or wondering why you're strangely sneezy.

However, when you, the guest, leave and the room is again available, it's as if I've been depriving the kitties of the most comfortable room in the house.

When the door is closed, the cats sleep on the couch or in my bed or even in the middle of the floor. I'll often wake in the middle of the night to find a cat on the neighboring pillow or in the crook of my elbow or at the foot of the bed. I'll come home to find them snuggled in the blankets on the couch or soaking in the sun by the sliding glass door or stretched out on the yoga mat.

But now that the guest room is open for the first time in 6 weeks? They might never leave this beautiful new world.

*I say that I usually make the bed. This last time, I apparently made the bed without putting sheets on--probably as a way to keep the cats off the clean sheets. This was discovered when guests went to bed after a long day of traveling, cleaning, cooking, and generally preparing for a major holiday. awesome. Hopefully they are forgiving people. Sheets were immediately procured, but still...that would be a hospitality fail. Sorry friends.