Confessions of a One-Track Mind

I'm sane this week, which I really appreciate after last week's hysteria. I usually don't think of myself as a special snowflake, but every once in a while, I come unglued, and it isn't pretty.

Anyway, I've been keeping busy. I'm trying to make room for change, and I know, that sounds kinda NewAge metaphysical, but on a simple, practical level, I have tons of clothes I'll never wear again, and I'm trying to get them out of the way so I can keep track of the stuff that fits.

This has meant a block of time spent in the garage...I'm transfering all the outgoing stuff to the living room so I can sort it by size. The stuff that's size 30 or over is going to a gal from church, the rest I'll post on fatshionxchange in hopes of making a few bucks. Whatever hasn't sold by the end of January, I'll donate.

That freed up a whole bunch of hangers! I'm sure they'll come in handy while I sort through the piles in my bedroom. I haven't even gotten to my bedroom yet, which does need to happen fairly soon; it would be helpful if I could get my closet winnowed so I can bring in the keepers from the garage.

Meanwhile, the garage already looks better: I got the floor picked up to where I could put down an area rug. Not the old one from the living room, but a slightly smaller one that I got ages ago, earmarked for my bedroom. That never happened, but it works nicely in the space out there. In addition to keeping my feet a little warmer when I'm doing laundry during the winter, I figure having an actual rug down will make it more noticeable when there's stuff on the floor. Otherwise, I have a finely developed ability to tune out clutter.

Getting behind one section of clothes to some shelves, I came across a box with a ceramic Father Christms on horseback. It's dated 1995, but I don't remember painting it. (I used to be very much into ceramics and did other Father Christms/Santa figures; I did a woodland Santa that I gave to Peter---god knows whatever happened to that one---and an undersea Santa that I gave to GK, which presumably she still has.) I brought this one into the house and perched him on my entertainment unit. Nice timing, self. Usually I'd find something like that in February.

Today I've been working in the living room, trying to make enough room to be able to sort things. Over the weekend, I went through and organized my DVDs, which doesn't really impact the rest of the room, but now I can at least see what I have. I cleared off the coffee table so that all it has on it is the dragonfly dish GK gave me for my birthday. *I* know I've made progress, but a casual visitor would likely be appalled.

I've got to figure out what I'm going to do about linens and towels. I made a concentrated effort and got through the pile of stuff that had accumulated atop my wicker chair. Big stack of sheets and towels and pillowcases. Found one pair of my grey slacks, a few skirts and tops...got that all hung, but I really do need to address my closet, because I'm running out of "temporary" places to hang things!

I know I'm probably not going about this in the most organized way, but at least I'm doing something. Right? Right.



Also, I'm currently 271.6, which is somewhere between the best of times and the worst of times, but considering my record high, or even where I began this year, definitely closer to the best of times.

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I'm trying not to eat everything in sight. It's difficult. Restraint is not in my nature. I like food, and unfortunately, I tend to regard the major food groups as sweet, salty and fried. I'm trying to get away from that, but again, it's a struggle.

About a year ago, BC was storing some tinned fruit out in my garage, because he didn't have a garage at home. His plan was to make some kind of generic fruit wine/rotgut. I haven't been to that end of the garage in months, until tonight. I fought my way north and discovered it was gone, which saves me having to lug it down to the Sharing Center.

When I was rampaging through TJ Maxx a week ago Saturday, I got a hat. It's the same style as in my icon--- flat crown, flat brim with a turned up rim. It's solid navy blue. I've been thinking about customizing it. After all, Easter's coming.

I'm thinking of trimming it in yellow and white, both of which go well with navy and each other. And maybe gracing it with a butterfly or two.

Awesome Justified.



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When I got home from church this afternoon, I changed out of the cute little red and black plaid skirt (under a red top and a black cardigan with embroidered cherries) and into my least favorite jeans and an old tee shirt and went out to clean the barn garage. I'm going to need a place to house the Camaro while I'm working on it, it's that simple.

Excavating produced a number of cries of "That's where that went!" and a few "Where the hell did that come from?!" and tomorrow, it's probably going to provoke cries of "Oh, my God---I'm so sore!"---but it's progress. I went at it for a couple hours, to the point where there are now a couple full garbage cans, several boxes and bags and two dead chairs beside the road for trash pickup. I tossed fallen sheetrock, dead bedding and pillows, and crumbled greenware.

There's now a second path from the front to the back---a bit narrower than the first one, but it's passable. There are two pieces of furniture in the middle, piled high with boxes, and that's going to take some organizing (but it'll get there). One is a small entertainment unit I have no qualms about parting with, the other is an Art Deco vanity that I want to reclaim. It lived happily in my bedroom for years, until H.W.S.N.B.N. came along and decided he *had* to park his computer desk right there.

Meanwhile, I'm looking at doing three or four loads of laundry to see if some of the stuff I've uncovered is usable by me or if it will survive for anyone else to use. For some reason, there's a fair amount of sizes 22/24---currently too small for me, but with life left in it. The funny thing is, I don't recall wearing ANY of it when I was last that size.

When I got to the point where I was feeling fairly in control of things, I went on to replace the knob that was last week's failed project. This time, the doorknob actually worked right, so I don't have to take it back to Wal*Mart yet again. Unlike my previous attempt, it took me fifteen minutes, tops, which is more like my idea of what something like replacing a simple doorknob should take.

I may be sore all over tomorrow, but at least I'll have something to show for it!

This morning, I took a leaf from "Field of Dreams"...went and spent an hour in the garage, pitching things and rearranging. Got my big "kettle" bbq grill set back up---it toppled over I don't *know* how long ago---pushed stuff around, and I now have a path to the side door! This is significant progress. Go, me!

There is still a metric buttload of miscellany that needs to find new homes before I can fit a car in there, but it's better than it was. It's like one of those puzzles with sliding tiles; move this here, that there, can't do anything until there's room to get X from point A to point B....

And the idea of that dusty, cruddy space being used as a paint booth---ai! But I'll cross that Rubicon when I get to it.