My husband signed us up for an interesting assignment last night - we went at 9:30 at night to help clean the Conference Center. We thought it might be a fascinating opportunity to see the building "behind the scenes," and we did get to go down a couple of back hallways and up a freight elevator, but by and large, we spent most of the three hours in the main open area, in the balcony. Vacuuming.

Two and one-half hours of vacuuming. With a vacuum that mounted on one's back, like a Ghostbuster pack.

My husband did most of the work, and I was the "cord girl," following him down one aisle and unraveling the cord as he went, then gathering it back up as he came the other way. And in those two-plus hours, we vacuumed ONE SECTION of that huge, cavernous auditorium.

When we dragged ourselves back out to the car, I pointed out to Larry the irony of spending that amount of time cleaning something that on its worst day was already cleaner than my house is on its best day. I wondered aloud how they kept up with it. And he said, "One section at a time."

It keeps ringing in my mind, and I realize I have fallen prey to the notion that if I can't get it all done in one swoop, I don't even want to start. So I'm going to try to have a "one section at a time" month. I'm going to start in one spot, give it a concerted effort for a solid block of time, and then MOVE ON.

Maybe that's why we have daytime and nighttime - to give us the chance to work out our lives "in sections."

I'll let you know if it works!