CLEAN SHEETS ON THE BED

Simply typing the title of todays blog entry makes me want to inhale deeply, drawing in the fresh cotton scent of clean sheets that were just placed on the bed. There is something so inviting about them that simply calls to me. Pulling them out of the dryer begins the temptation to wrap myself inside. I've gone through this process thousands of times before and my reaction is always the same. I rush to the bed while the sheets are still warm and place the fitted sheet ever so quickly on the waiting bare mattress. With the same pace I place the flat sheet on top, careful to fold about 6 inches of the top down (I don't know what, it just matters that I do this) and then run my hand down the edge of the bed from top to bottom, feeling the heat from the dryer's exit escape through my fingertips. If I do this as rapidly as possible, I litterally feel the temperature of the sheets change beneath my hand. I love this feeling. I'm not sure I have described the pleasure it gives me well enough. I tuck the sheets in, using hospital corners if at all possible. With the mattresses of today getting thicker, or deeper as the industry calls it, the old sheets I have become accustomed to simply don't have enough excess to wrap under between the mattress and box springs like I would prefer. I make do, carefully putting the top sheet in place, checking all areas to make certain it is just so. And then it happens. Inhale. Breathing deeply inward I smell the freshness the clean sheets give off. They are beckoning to me, I hear them. They say, "Come, lay down, get comfortable, you have earned this moment!" There is something else speaking to me though. I hear another message in my head that says, "Don't mess those clean sheets up. Once you have used them, they are no longer clean, but are rather soiled." I fight this inner beast inside of me. Do I sit, lay down or stand reverantly? I'm so torn. The decision is made instantly. In the blink of an eye, the dillema is solved. In one quick leap, Shotzee lays downs, breaths in so deep that one might actually see the outline of his ribcage and then he closes his eyes and sleeps ever so peacefully on the once clean sheets on the bed. (Note to self: Add Tide to the grocery list. There will be sheets to be washed very soon.)