it's all a matter of perspective...

so today i was walking through a house, and it was spotless. really looked beautiful. very bright, very stylish. but zero clutter. i'm cluttered, but not filthy, not disgusting. there's no week old pizza boxes in the corner, no mold growing anywhere, no fear of roaches... you don't have to kick stuff aside to get from the bed to the bathroom or bags of trash anywhere. just clutter. some of it is the lack of focus. go through my garage or my office area, and there's stacks of papers or items relating to unfinished projects. now at work, that's not entirely my fault, we work way understaffed. but at home...

but the really weird part of this house was the complete lack of books. no magazines anywhere, nothing. they had a room set up as an office, and in that room they had a three or four shelf bookshelf and probably ten or so books on the top shelf and that was it. in the master bedroom there is a "retreat" area (as the realtors like to dress it up on the mls sheet) with a recliner and great light and not a book within arm's reach.

looking at the photos on their wall, i see tons of drunken fun. and lots of nomadic ramblings. i suppose such people might walk into one of my living spaces and take pity on me, seeing the stacks of books and papers and what not, and assume that i've got a small, tiny life. but it's funny, i couldn't help but think the same of them for the lack of.... not stuff. i've got way too many damned trinkets and knick-knacks. but input sources. books, magazines, newspapers, internet... whatever. just ways to go in sponge mode and suck stuff in besides the toob.

and i know nothing about these people, i shouldn't be making such judgements. i'm sure a large part of it is just the fact that they're trying to sell a house and are trying to make things nice and pretty. but first impressions are funny. you can't control them, they just happen.