Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Weird. Life is weird. And also chaotic.

I said it earlier this month. Life feels...weird. I don't know if it's the changing of seasons (which, by the way, can't seem to commit to changing) or what, but I've felt for a while that except for a few incidents where I am specifically engaged in a specific activity doing specific things and whatnot, that it's like life is happening, but I'm not happening with it. I hope that makes sense. I don't even know if it makes sense to me. So maybe it REALLY doesn't make sense to anyone else. Of course, it may just be that I've got so many THINGS happening at this very second, that I can't focus on any one of them long enough to really feel engaged. May and December are always hard. As a nanny (even as a nanny to very grown-up persons) they are spectacularly busy. Moving in and out of dorms and finishing the school year and doctors' and dentists' appointments and packing for trips. It's...a lot. And due to several things, this year is particularly "fun"-filled. I'vve also immersed myself in a kind a peresonal reorganization. Actually, this started way long in the past. The closet reorganization and clean-out started last November. The weekend of the Iron Bowl, to be precise. And I know this specifically because I was decoupaging a bookcase to go in my closet and became so engrossed in Alabama taking Auburn to the woodshed that I put a paintbrush full of ModPodge into my beer. Suffice it to say I have gotten rid of bags and bags of clothes. I thought about taking them to the consignment shop in town, but then I remembered how awesome it is to find something super-cool in a thrift store and I took them to Goodwill. It felt especially refreshing since our closest Goodwill was flooded completely during last September's hurricane and they lost literally ALL of their merchandise. AND I have a theory that doing that makes good thrifting karma for me down the road. And I'm pretty sure I'm right. I took a trunk-load and then the next week, found two pairs of Lilly pants, plus a Dooney and Bourke purse for K at Red, White and Blue.

Another ongoing, but almost finished project, has been going through the absolutely enormous stack of old magazines that had seemingly mated and multiplied in the corner of my closet. Long before Pinterest allowed you to virtually pin cool outfits and recipes and party ideas, I had kept big binders of stuff I had found and torn out of magazines. Of course, in one of those, life is happening spans of time, I had allowed a pretty good stack to start growing. And then, as the stack grew, it became just intimidating. So rather than deal with it, I just let it sit. And grow some more. I'm not finished. I've gotten through pretty much all of the fashion magazines--they're easy. I see it, I like it and I tear it.--but the cooking magazines are so much harder. That involves things like reading ingredients and weighing the relative difficulty of making whatever it is. It's also harder now that television season is winding down. Going through old magazines is an absolutely PERFECT activity when you don't want to JUST watch.

So closet-95% organized. I even have, at this very moment, exactly TWO things sitting next to the ironing board waiting to be ironed. This is a MAJOR accomplishment for me, since it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility for me to have two complete baskets waiting to be ironed. Magazine clean out? About 70% done. I still have to put the fairly sizable stack of awesome things I've found into the pockets in the binders. I've completely cleaned out one storage room and am about halfway done with the other. I'm attacking that tomorrow.

I've stage-managed on high school show. Been to see the other. Saw a friend in a show last weekend. Seeing friends in another on Friday. Have to get through my show in June. And maybe Mimi's if I can get home for it.

I'm setting small goals. I've finally figured that it's the only way to make anything happen. And if, on some days, said goal consists solely of making the bed and hanging up the towel rather than throwing it on top of the hamper? Well, I'm okay with that.

Because Ferris was right. Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

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