Declutter Outside to Clear Up the Inside
The shrill ring of the telephone shook me up from my reverie. Still groggy, I walked across to the other end of the room to answer the call. On the other end, I heard my college buddy and best friend, Swe's familiar voice, "J," she screamed with excitement and with none of the formalities of a conversation. "I am coming over, please keep the Gol Gappe ready," she said before the phone line went dead. Thud! That was the end of the conversation! Calls from Swe and hearing the thud on the other end of the phone was a norm, as was the standard of having disconnected calls via landlines in 2000, which were entirely at the mercy of long-wrung cables. However, on this particular day, Swe appeared at my door drenched in rainwater from head to toe, barely minutes after she called. Since pleasantries weren't necessary, she got right to the matter, which meant darting to my room to get changed — out of her wet clothes and into my dry ones so that we could get chatt...