I brew the coffee strong. I figure if I'm gonna drink it (which isn't all the time, usually only on weekends), it's gonna be COFFEE. Of course, I do cut it with cream and all, but the coffee I brew is quite healthy. Built to cut through the haze and last night's sleeplessness. Everything starts to come into place.

The real reason for the cleaning isn't spring. Sure, the funk of a few months of winter are still in the house a bit. The constant movement of dust from heaters and slip slip foot falls gives the place a look of settled-desert-ness. Sweep up the food the roaches haven't taken for themselves (usually cookie crumbs and the occasional piece of burrito meat), push the dust and their bunny shapes around and try to get most of it in the trash.

But the real reason is a visit from the parents and remaining grandparent. My roommate (ok, brother) directed a theatrical production of Catch-22 @ the Vortex Theatre, which ended this weekend. The relatives were here to witness the spectacle for themselves. And I'm not sure if they knew what to expect.

My part in the production was done when the first curtain went up. I was a mostly silent observer during the rehearsals, hopefully only a slight distraction to the proceedings. I made a few comments and suggestions, usually at home after everything was over for the night. This is my preferred job. The guy behind the guy. The very easy occupation of watching everything happen and have no real reason to be there. I do this well.

So on Good Friday (which is a day off for me, thanks to my Catholic boss), I got up and tackled the big cleaning stuff. The four bags of aluminum cans--mostly consisting of Guinness cans meaning I have to cut them open to take out the plastic balls that contained CO2 so that the beer has that just out the keg taste. The stack of newspapers, wine and beer bottles, plastic jugs and miscellaneous cardboard. Wal-Mart has recycling trailers constantly ready to take all of these things.

But once the house is clean enough, the real cleaning begins. That mind full of crap from the last few months really needs to get changed out. The list of buzzing thoughts that really need to be let go of. Because they certainly aren't doing me any good running around and around in my head.

So, like a New Year's Resolution, I've come up with things that need to happen to clean the life up:

Read more. And I've been doing this off and on since the high reading season of the holidays, but I really need to re-read some books I flew through in school. So when I say I read it, I actually remember some of it.

Get back to those exercises. Push ups. Sit ups. Stretching. Almost Yoga, but not quite. Throw the baseball. Kick the soccer ball. Run around the park. Swing the bat and try not to knock anything over.

Stop talking to the ex so much. This is tougher because it's like a guilty pleasure. All the reasons we broke up and all the reasons we can't stay away from each other swirl around like hallucinations from a bad dream trip. There is always this little fantasy that she's Elaine and I'm Seinfeld, but I also know that the reality is even more twisted.

Get out more. The winter always sucks my energy to go out. It's cold at night. It's uncomfortable. But spring means warmer nights, no need for jackets and the girls wear less and less clothing. It's a good thing to leave the house.

Stop obsessing over the pointlessness of work. Mostly just to spare everyone else my sad stories of office work than anything else.

Find a purpose. I know I used to have one of these. And actually, the last one I had lasted me a few years. But it's gone now, and I don't want to do it again. So I've got to figure out what I want to do--other than be the silent observer.

And by the time all of this became crystal clear, the house was cleaner than it had been, my car was declared fit for duty for another year or so and the relatives were ensconced in the living room, spring peaked its pretty little head out and gave me a beautiful weekend. Hardly a cloud in the sky, temperatures brushing the 80s and the wind wasn't so blustery.

Sometimes spring cleaning actually works.

Matt Worley is done sweeping up the dust bunnies in his mind for another week.