Errykitty gets to eat. Errykitty gets to use the box. Nokitty has to play Hot Lava 24/7.
12. Tired. Cranky. Fat.
So. I’m tired. I don’t know whether I am tired physically, or because of this series of rapid changes, but I am tired. I am sure part of it is that I still haven’t regulated my schedule. I just can’t make myself see the point of getting out of my bed at 3:30 if I have nowhere to go, and I just want to sleep.
In other news, I have reached the serious part of the non-smoker plan. Three cigarettes yesterday. Two so far today. I’m having to do some fast talking with myself. I don’t want to quit smoking. I do want to be a non-smoker. Which dog will I feed? And also, those cookies…..GIVE THEM TO ME!
Speaking of cookies, I had a discussion with several pairs of jeans today. Basically, the discussion consisted of me saying “buh bye.” For those of you wondering why I dress mostly in skirts and tops, let me tell you. My waist is about a size 12/14. Hips, 10/12. Ass, 6/8. The jeans that make my butt look good are impossible to button. Unless they are low rise, and then I can button them, but the band rolls down and my belly hangs out for all the world to see, which is gross because tiger stripes, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a closet full of tunics.
I am not even thinking about diet and exercise at this point. Too much else already going on. I’m going to stick with fixing my sleep and fixating on cigarettes.
This picture is all I want in life right now. Nicotine, cookies, and that Otter IN my bed. But I’m going to settle for some Earl Grey Raspberry and Game of Thrones.
11. I Am Rarely
10. Not Distracted
Alternate Title: Sometimes I Get a Glimpse
This has been a good weekend. And I don’t mean a weekend full of frivolity. I mean this has been a weekend that fed my soul. Friday night, there was conversation and Game of Thrones. Saturday, I introduced my companion and my children to the Bookthing. I dropped off upwards of 100 books and left with only four. Yay, me. Then brunch. An afternoon spent napping. Excellent dinner, classic Dr. Who, more GoT. Gotta get ready for the new season by re-watching the old ones. This morning I cooked breakfast. I can’t even remember the last time I did that. Sitting at the table, surrounded by dear faces, just talking. I’ll be cooking breakfast more often, because the result is worth it. Afterward, more conversation over extended coffee while watching my children do their children things.
Apparently I looked distracted. I was not. I was fully present and fully focused in the moment– realizing how peaceful and solid I felt.
Now, I’m no fool. I don’t think. Maybe I am. But sometimes, I have to hear myself say a thing out loud before I allow myself to admit a deeper truth. Truth: I purge my house every January. Another truth: This year’s purge is wider and deeper than it has been since my divorce. Another truth: my physical environment is a close reflection of my mental and emotional self. Implied truth: If I am clearing out old things that no longer serve me, I am clearing out old emotions and ideas that no longer serve me. Conclusion: I am clearing physical space and mental/emotional space at the same time. I knew this, but I didn’t see what was happening until I said it out loud yesterday.
Sometimes, the universe conspires to give me a glimpse, and if I am paying attention, I am compelled to acknowledge the true state of things. And today’s true state of things with me is: I want more weekends like this. Weekends where nothing and everything happens. Weekends that are about loving the moments.
9. On Point
I love it when a meal comes together. Who wants to date me for my cooking?
8. Because Tea
Ya’ll. So tired. I contemplated going to bed, but the nightly tea ritual. So I’m not in bed yet. But soon.
In truth, I am trying to garner up the energy to tackle that closet one more time. I made a plan at work that I think will help me both weed out more things I don’t use and better organize what is left. But I pretty much have to take everything out and put it on the bed. And I’m tired, in case I didn’t mention it. I’m going to want my bed long before I would be through with the project. Unless this is magic tea.
I just want to reach in there and get dressed for the day quickly and efficiently. I mean, I know what I wear to work, right? Always a solid shirt and a print skirt. Occasionally a dress. Why don’t I already have that stuff on one side, with the shoes I wear to work underneath? Why do I paw through my dress shirts every. damn. work. day. to get to my solid knits? Yeah, I don’t know either. But I do know when I went in there to start the process, I eliminated three more things off the bat. And half a dozen more are iffy.
So, I’m excited to do that. But I am not going to bury my bed at 7pm, when bedtime is 8. Nope. Gonna finish this tea, wash my face, and slip between the sheets. Maybe tomorrow morning.
7. This Year’s Mission
For years, plenty of them, my younger girls have been asking when I was going to make their scrapbooks. And my older kids have been asking when was I going to finish their scrapbooks. I finally have an answer: 2016.
This pile (plus two more bins tucked into a closet) is roughly 30 years worth of memorabilia, minus the 5-6 years in the middle which I’ve completed. Oh, and I quit developing pictures when digital got big, so there will be more.
Here’s the rub: I haven’t had a dedicated scrapping space since I left Topeka in 2000. I made one today. I’m not sure the children will be entirely happy with me, because I claimed the dining room table to make this happen. And I have to be able to leave things on it. Scrapping isn’t something I can do in 10 minutes and clean up and take back out for 10 minutes again later. I need the pictures, the papers, the books, the mats, the tape runner, the page protectors, the pens, the, the, the literally at my fingertips.
So. We’ll be eating our meals Japanese style, seated on the floor around a coffee table in front of the glass wall to the balcony for the duration. Not a great solution, but a solution. I want to get these stories down before I get dementia. My memory is sketchy enough as it is.
In other news, I cleaned the living room today. I have a guest coming this weekend. I’ve promised to spend next Tuesday with my daughter. I can tackle the bathrooms and kitchen next Thursday. Then Marscon the next weekend. That means I can start scrapping on the 18th (if I’m off for the holiday and I am pretty sure I am) or the 19th. The first thing I have to do is look at all this stuff and see what I actually have. It’s been moved and removed so many times that all I have now is a great big jumbled up mess of memories.
6. Mix and Match
I felt a bit…what’s the word…rebellious?? Maybe. What I didn’t feel was like I had to wear all solids with the striped skirt. So I didn’t. As my children love to say, “I’m grown, I do what I want.”
Do you ever have one of those periods of time where you are experiencing positive emotions, but are somewhat weirded out by them? That’s me right now. I think I am uncomfortable because there could be change. Change is hard. Change is not usually fun. It stretches me in funny ways. Also, there’s the possibility that I still find happiness a bizarre personal condition.
Speaking of stretching, I didn’t think I had overdone it yesterday, but I’ve got some twinges in my hips and thighs today. I’d say I was out of shape, but I don’t want to hurt round’s feelings.
I’ve come across this quote several times in the past few days: “Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.” Antoine De Saint-Exupery I’m thinking hard on this one, so I thought I would leave it right here for a minute.
Oh, you thought mix and match referred to my clothes, didn’t you? Oops. I was talking about my head.