Ha. If only this post would be as juicy as the title.

Instead I'm just sitting here in bed, (oh, how I love this new laptop!) and was examining all the clutter on my night stand. It's well overdue for a clean up. But anyhow, I was thinking how the personal crap that clutters your bedside really reveals a lot about a person.

So on that note, I'm gonna list for you all the things that compose the Mellowdee mess here beside me... And maybe tomorrow I'll clean it up.

First, my nightstand is actually a cheap glass end table that used to sit in my living room until J won the lottery and bought us some new furniture. (He won just over $2,000 three years ago - the same day we were moving into our new apartment. This was especially awesome because it meant that we didn't have to move that old lumpy, heavy, scratched to sh*t hide-a-bed. The people from The Brick moved it away for us when they delivered our new couch.)

Okay, so on top of my glass end table/night stand sits a silver lamp with a yellowed shade, in desperate need of replacing. Some stray cat hairs stubbornly cling to it like lint to a sweater even though I've taken my sticky lint tape to it a couple times. A couple more hairs dangle from the edges, catching the light. Paints a lovely picture, no?

On the far side of the lamp sits "The Secret", a birthday gift I received from my friend RM two years ago. He said he read it, but I don't think he retained any of it or else he wouldn't be such a negative nelly all the time. But that's another story...

Clockwise to that, there is a little stack of random nonsense. At the bottom, a tan coloured hair elastic. Next is a laminated bookmark which includes a photo and obituary for my wonderful Grandfather who passed away five years ago this Jan. 21st. There is also a fall scene on the bookmark - although I'm not sure why since he was neither born nor died in the fall. On top of that is another tan hair elastic and an empty box of birth control with the empty pill casing sitting nearby. On the very top of the small stack is a little LED book light, which I never use because it's really friggin' bright and probably keeps J awake even more than my regular bedside lamp.

Further clockwise is an old red spiral bound journal. It looks like fake snake skin or some kind of scaly texture. The journal began as a dateless sketch pad (probably started sometime in 2003) with a drawing of half a butterfly whose top wing resembles an eye. The journal ends with an entry about spirit guides made on March 2nd of 2008.

Next is a bottle of water from Tim Hortons which I've refilled 4 times. If I leave a glass by my bedside, Tuna will drink it when I'm not looking, because she's a little brat like that.

Then there is a black pen, which I use for my journal writing. The pen lies next to a thin stack of books. At the bottom is For One More Day by Mitch Albom given to me by RM. He bought it so I'd have something to read on our flight to Europe, but then when he started browsing through the book himself, he realized that it was really meant for him. (I can see that... there are a couple parallels between his life and that of the protagonist.) And so he gave it to me after we returned from our trip.

On top of For One More Day is Pocket Guide to the Tarot by Alan Oken which I bought in 2000-2001ish when I bought my deck of tarot cards. Normally my tarot cards would sit on the table alongside this book... but I was using them in the dining room on Sunday and never put them back. J was debating whether or not he should visit his Grandma A because we had really bad driving conditions and she lives about an hour away. He was leaning more against it, but the cards suggested that he should go. He was glad he did.

On top of my tarot book is 101 Ways to Jump Start Your Intuition by John Holland, given to me by J as a birthday gift about 3 years ago.

Then on the very top of the stack is a large raw amethyst. I dug it up at the amethyst mines in Thunder Bay, ON (waaay up north by Lake Superior, for those of you who are familiar with the Great Lakes.) The mine was a "must see" pit-stop on my road trip when I was moving out west 6 years ago. Amethysts are my favourite stone, and this one fits nicely in my hand. I often hold it when I meditate. Now and then I sleep with it under my pillow. I'm certainly no sensitive "Princess and the Pea" and J has scratched his arm on it a few times. ("Why do you sleep with big jagged rocks under your pillow?!" he always asks. I've never had a real answer for him.) Occasionally I'll hold it in my hand as I drift off to sleep. I don't know... I guess you could say it comforts me.

Next to that stack of books is another stack! But this time it's only two books. The bottom one is The Book of Runes by Ralph H. Blum which once belonged to Janet, who passed it on to me as a very thoughtful Christmas present (which I read cover to cover in two days, btw. Thank you again.)

On top of the Book of Runes is one of my current journals. It's cover is brown fake leather with an imprint of flowers and vines. The pages are rimmed in gold. I started this journal on March 19th, 2007. The first entry is about the promise and potential held by blank pages, as well as my curiosity about the stories they will tell in the future. The most recent entry was made on January 4th and is an exercise in angelspeake.

And so, I bet that description of bedside nonsense probably revealed more about me than a year's worth of blog posts ever could -- least of which it revealed that I have some serious tidying to do. And if you think the top of my nightstand sounds messy, you should hear about the stacks of books I have on the bottom shelf of my nightstand. Not to mention the few that spill out on to the floor beside the bed.

But maybe I'll save that for another time.