#2586 Saturday with Sandy

T had to work last night, so I was up at 2am to pick him up. The bad part was that I wasn’t able to fall back to sleep until nearly 3am, and then the doggos woke me up at 6am because that is their breakfast time and they can’t tell the weekdays from the weekend days. Since I was up, I got ready and took them to the dog park. It was already nearly 80 degrees by 7:15, so you know that means it’s gonna be a scorcher. 

Next up was WW (down 1.4 lbs!) then to Starbucks for some breakfast. I found myself really missing my sister as I was having breakfast, so I had to text her about it, then I took a nap. After that, I was ready to get on with the day.

The best thing I did today was donate a shit-ton of compact discs to Goodwill. I’ve had the CDs boxed up and sitting in the office for probably a year now. To my knowledge, neither MT nor T ever even peeked into the boxes to find a CD they wanted to keep, so following with my overall clean up theme, I loaded those two boxes into the car and took them away. It felt a little weird because those two boxes represent years of buying and collecting that music. Now I can’t tell you the last time I popped a CD into the car stereo. I don’t think I’ve ever put a CD in my Subaru stereo, and I’ve had the car nearly two years. Still, I felt a little sad to see them go, but mostly I felt relief and happiness at having those boxes out of the office. 

I went shopping at Old Navy. I was looking for a couple of specific items, of which I only found one. I did pick up a couple of new shirts - yes, they are t-shirts but they don’t have words on them! 

When I got back home, I ate a late lunch, then laid on the couch and finished a book. You know, I finished four books in June, and in July, I have already finished two books. Now I am actively reading just two books. It’s a relief!

MT is in Idaho and T has gone over to his friend Derik’s house tonight, so the dogs and I are chillin’. Mac is laying on the cool tile floor in the bathroom. Harley is sprawled across the foot of the bed in front of the fan. Out my window, I can see the fireworks display from Magna township. There are bursts and booms all around us. 

I was thinking about watching a movie, but I’m feeling so tired that I think I’ll just get in bed and read for awhile until I fall asleep. I’ve got some nice orchestral music playing that mute the booms somewhat. 

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

#2581 three things: personal style, a cozy home, and a nice outdoor space

In the last post, I teased that I pondered stuff while I was on vacation. On Tuesday, when I was thinking about it, they were very clear. Now, not so much LOL. I'll give it a shot anyway. First, some background.

In 2019, when I thought I'd be going to France in 2020, I started following some Instagram accounts that posted photos of France, though most of them were photos of Paris. One of the accounts I followed is called This French Life. The woman behind the handle is named Shannon. She is an American living in France. For two or three weeks this month, she and her husband were traveling from Paris through Provence and Bordeaux to Bretagne. She posted videos and photos of the villages they visited and the AirBnBs they rented. It was a virtual French road trip for me! I commented on some of the photos and videos and I was surprised when Shannon responded to me on pretty much every comment I made, even if my comment was just a happy face emoji. It made me more curious about her, and when I just did a little looking, I found out she is an influencer. Interesting!

1. I'm not that kind of woman. A thing about Shannon - she always looked lovely in her videos and photos. Fundamentally, she is an attractive lady. She also has a lot of style. Nearly every day, she would post a photo of her outfit which were always very cute. (duh! Influencer - although she didn't ever mention where she got her clothes or accessories.) Her hair is pretty; it's very short and neatly styled. Her makeup is on point; her skin is clear and the makeup is not fussy. 

Let's contrast Shannon's vacation look to my vacation look. First, let's talk about hair. I forgot to bring a brush or a comb and that first morning, my hair was starting to tangle pretty significantly. I had to buy a brush so I didn't end up with dreads by the end of the week. Neatly styled hair has pretty much never been a thing for me. 

Second, I wore no makeup all week. I like makeup; well, maybe it's more accurate to say that I like the idea of makeup. I'm just not very good at it. 

Third, every shirt I took with me on vacation had words or pictures on it, except one. I had a San Diego Padres shirt, a shirt that says Efforting, a Mickey Mouse shirt, and a Jazz shirt, plus a couple of others.  I didn't think too much about it until I actually paid attention. All the photos we took also drove home the point. Mom and Lizzie weren't wearing shirts with words or pictures or sports team names. What is the matter with me? I'm a grown-ass woman! What am I doing?!

I pondered my wardrobe choices and realized that although I probably would not ever be a woman who looks "put together", I could do better by being a little more thoughtful when choosing my clothing. I have made a vow not to buy any more t-shirts with words or pictures on them (for now, anyway).

2. Look at the house with an outsider's eye. Mom and Lizzie have  moved around furniture and cleared out some spaces to make the house look really nice. It's cozy, clean, and comfortable. It made me think of my own house, and how an outsider might see it. I wasn't very proud of the outsider's view. The dog hair, the dust, the lack of homey touches, the crowded countertops - and that's just downstairs! Don't even get me started on the upstairs spaces!

I pondered on all the cleaning I need to do to make me feel a little more proud, I guess. Cleaning, throwing stuff out, just overall tidying up needs to be done. Mom and Lizzie are coming in August, so I've got a deadline! The real question is this: do I have the discipline and will-power to clean up and throw stuff away?

3. Outdoor space. Mom and Lizzie have a sweet back garden. The front is very nice, too, but the backyard is lovely. Mom and Dad spent a lot of time and energy creating a nice outdoor space. Lizzie and Mom have continued to work on it. Some of my favorite times were just sitting out at the high top table, reading or writing, watching the hummingbirds play in the fountain, looking at the plants, and simply enjoying the outdoors. 

I pondered what would make my outdoor space more pleasant. I pretty much let the dogs have the run of the yard, although we did plant a new tree that I really like. My outdoor space is the deck, and what I pondered was what I could do to spruce up the deck and make it more inviting. In the evening, it's pleasant to sit out there, but it's not much to look at. Now I am thinking of some different ideas and checking out Pinterest for inspiration. 

#2373 Saturday with Sandy

The big thing I did today was swap out my winter clothes for my summer clothes. Marie Kondo says that there really isn't much reason to have different clothes for different seasons, but I beg to differ. While it's true that the office has good heating in winter and good cooling in summer, I can't imagine wearing the same things I wear in summer in the winter and vice versa. Hence, two separate sets of clothes. There is some overlap, like t-shirts and jeans that are multi-seasonal. I guess I could just wear those all the time, but in the Before, I was trying to be conscious of shaking up my t-shirt and jeans wardrobe. I expect I will be more conscious of what I wear in the After as well.

I do take a Marie Kondo approach to swapping out my clothes. I take everything out of the closet and out of the drawers. I touch every piece of clothing and decide if it stays in rotation, goes into storage, or will be donated (when donations are accepted again). It's kind of chaotic and also kind of fun. Also in Marie Kondo fashion, I do give a little nod of thanks to the clothes that I decide to pass along to others. It feels right to me to do that. 

What I know for sure is that I have WAAAAAAAAY too much stuff. Too many clothes, more than I need for sure. I did get fill a big garbage sack with clothing to donate. I was mostly able to get all the cold-weather clothing into the storage container, but some jackets had to get back on hangers on the far end of the rack. I hope that I can be more aware of clothes that I tend to skip over as I get dressed and just let those clothes go. 

The rest of the day I have been reading and hanging out. MT and I watched Becoming on Netflix. We liked it because we like Michelle Obama and the person she appears to be. If you don't like her, don't watch the show and don't @ me. 

Here's a heart-warming story of goodness:

My sister told me on Friday that she had sent me a little somethin-somethin for Mother's Day/Quarantine Life that would be delivered that day (yesterday). I was excited and zipped down to my mailbox to pick it up after work. In my neighborhood, we have a  big mailbox that has about a dozen boxes, one for each house. The boxes are small. There are also two big boxes that have special keys that the delivery person puts in our little box if there is something that won't fit in our own little mailboxes. There wasn't anything from Lizzie in the little mailbox and there was no key for the big mailbox either. Nothing was delivered to the house directly. We decided to wait another day to see if it would show up. Nothing in the mail tonight, either. Very sad. 

This evening, the doorbell rang. I was talking to my mom, so I asked MT to answer the door. It was one of our neighbors. The package had been mistakenly delivered to her and she brought it over to us! YAY! I'll point out that I don't know any of our neighbors. I know the people next door because they were here when we moved here almost 20 years ago, but all the other people came after and I'm not that social. So it was super-nice for the unknown neighbor to bring it over, especially in the time of the Virus. 

You want to know what was in the package my thoughtful little sister sent me? COOKIES!! Cookies from The Cravory! She sent me the May mix. I had the Mexican Hot Chocolate cookie tonight. It was soft and chocolatey and a little spicy. YUM! Thank you Lizzie! You know me so well. I'm actually wearing my Cookie Monster shirt today that says Keep Calm and Eat Cookies. I didn't know that cookies were coming my way, so I went to Crumbl today and got myself a Mother's Day treat. That Reese's Pieces cookie was gooooood.

And now...WOW...it's 9:15. I'm full of cookies, so I think I'll go lie down and read until I fall asleep. The temperature is very pleasant and I have all the windows upstairs open to let in the beautiful evening breeze. I'm gonna sleep good tonight. 

One last thing, though. Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas out there and especially to my own sweet Mamacita. I love you!!

#1991 Saturday with Sandy

Today has been a good day. I did a lot of stuff and even though I didn't get through everything on my to-do list, I still feel good about it.

First thing today was to get back to Weight Watchers. The last time I weighed in was 9 December. There were a lot of busy Saturdays in my world between 9 December and 27 January. The good news is that I was down more than two pounds since my last weigh in. I had been up when I weighed myself at home but I really focused on what I was eating this week and it paid off!

My sister lives near a really great little French cafe where she often goes on Saturday mornings to work and read and write. When I was in San Diego last month, Lizzie took me to the cafe and I read and wrote while she worked on a poem. There's nothing like that cafe in my neighborhood, but there is a Starbucks, so I went over there for breakfast and a change of atmosphere. I was there for about 90 minutes. I pondered the topic of the WW meeting and jotted down some thoughts. I messed around with my planner and discovered that it is missing a week's worth of pages from 8 Feb to 14 Feb. Weird. I fired off an email to the company to complain about it. I wrote in my journal.

Every year I do an activity called "unravelling" designed by Susannah Conway.  This year she added another part to the process where you look back on the month. Each month has a section where you list what you are thankful for and what you learned. Then there are three questions that are different each month. One of the questions for January was "What are you craving right now?" I thought about it and what I'm really craving is spending time outside. When we were in Mazatlan we were outside all the time. Since we've been back here in SLC, it has been cold but I have missed getting some fresh air every day. I have a coat, gloves, hat, scarves, boots...all the winter gear. I plan to make it a point to get outside for a quick walk or a short break every day.

I'm sorry to say that some of our Christmas decorations were still up, so the next thing I did today was to put all the decorations away. I bought some plastic storage containers and bubble wrap and put my holiday treasures away properly. That's when I realized I was kind of tired of the decor that had been displayed, so I was more thoughtful about what I put back out. I need some change, I guess.

Late this afternoon I went to see another Oscar nominated Best Picture. Today I saw "Call Me by Your Name".  Set in northern Italy, it was a beautiful movie. The light and the scenery were gorgeous. And so, by the way, is Armie Hammer. The kid, Timothee Chalamet, is appealing too. One of my favorite characters is Elio's dad, played by Michael Stuhlbarg.

I have to mention that last night MT and I rented another Best Picture nominee, "Get Out". Holy schmoley! It was crazy and thought-provoking and creepy and pretty dang good.

When I got home after the movie, I cooked dinner (carnitas from Trader Joe's) and we watched another movie, Home Again, starring Reese Witherspoon. Not a Best Picture nominee but I was ready for something sweet and easy.  I told you I was in movie-watching mode!

Now it's time for bed. Tomorrow I'm going to visit T and I have some other things to do also before I settle in to watch the Grammy awards tomorrow night. I'll be sure to get outside for at least ten minutes, too.

I hope you are all having a good weekend. Talk to you soon.

#1948 what would a guest think?

Do you ever take a look around your house and view it as a guest might? It is a practice that I really ought to do more often, I think.

Take tonight, for example. I was having a seat in the smallest room of my house and I took a look around. It's a little grimy in there. I thought about how embarrassed I would be if someone dropped by to visit without warning and said, "It's been a long drive and I really have to go potty." The room is not fit for other humans!

With that in mind, I have decided that tomorrow I am going to spend some time making my house presentable. People don't just drop in on us, but sometimes T has friends over. Plus it's not nice for me either.

I've never been what I would call an excellent housekeeper anyway. Maybe it's because I'm fundamentally lazy and I can always find something I would rather do than clean the house. Still, I like it when the house is clean. I will feel a nice sense of accomplishment by the time I write tomorrow night.

I had already planned to spend the day at home. I am going to change out my summer clothes for my winter clothes. It's a bittersweet chore. On one hand, I'm sad to put away my skirts and sleeveless tops and other light-weight clothes because I like the warm weather and getting out the sweaters means that winter is coming. On the other hand, it's kind of fun to pull out the sweaters again. It's like getting a new wardrobe. I also take time to assess whether clothes bring me joy and get rid of them if they don't.

It's gonna be a busy day of making my home "right".

#1746 not a capsule, but progress

Oh. My. Gosh. What a day!

If you read yesterday's post, you know that today is the day that I began the process of "tidying up". Based on what I learned from the Japanese clutter book, officially called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, I have decided for once and for all to de-clutter my house and take charge of my unkempt and too-much-of-everything world. The first step, according to the KonMari method, is to tidy up your clothes, keeping only the items that "spark joy."

The KonMari method is very specific and easy to follow. I really only intended to sort through my tops today, but once I got started, it made no sense at all to stop at tops, so I just pushed on through all of the clothing categories. In case you are interested, it goes like this: tops, bottoms, things that hang, socks, underwear, bags, accessories, clothes for specific events and shoes. You are supposed to put every item of clothing on the floor, then touch each one individually, deciding if it sparks joy. If it does, keep it. If not, discard it.

My first step was to take out every top I had from t-shirts to button-up shirts to sweaters and pile them on the floor. It was by far the biggest pile. I have a six drawer dresser that had t-shirts in at least four of the drawers. I had a closet full of tops and three space bags full of sweaters. It was overwhelming.

For the most part, though, it was easy to decide what gave me joy and what I was ready to discard. I piled the keepers up on my bed and put the others in garbage bags to take to Goodwill. When I was done with tops, I moved to bottoms and moved down the list. At the end of the process, here's my keep pile:

Osi was a little put out by the activity I had going on. She looked a little frightened by the giant pile of clothes on the bed. And let me also tell you that during this process, I was working my tail off. I was sweaty. I was dismayed and elated all at the same time. I couldn't believe I had so much stuff, but on the other hand, I knew I had way more than any one person could possibly need.

At this point, I had been working on the project for a couple of hours. I was folding my socks when I had an epiphany - I had a boatload of socks. What the hell was I doing with so many socks? There's no way I would wear so damn many socks! That was when I started to get a little shaky and loopy, so I decided to take a quick break. I came downstairs, got a glass of water and had a snack and decided something monumental: I did not need to have so many of the same thing (like socks). I could get rid of some socks even though they were perfectly good socks. I just don't have to have that many! I kept saying it over and over to myself. Remember that the first reason this whole thing got started was the idea of the capsule wardrobe. The capsule doesn't need 50 pairs of socks!

With renewed energy, I came back to my room to finish the task. I got out another garbage bag and filled it with more stuff from the pile that gave me joy. Turns out that some things gave me less joy than others the second time around. Don't get me wrong. I'm still very far from a capsule wardrobe. I still have way more of everything than I need. I feel pretty comfortable saying that I may very well get rid of more things at some point, but the difference is already measurable and significant.

Take a look:

a t-shirt drawer before

after

the closet before

after

bags and jeans

seven bags of stuff for Goodwill plus a couple of bags of garbage

Overall, the process took me a good five hours. I'm mentally tired right now, and physically tired as well. I went through my clothes only - I didn't mess around with any of MT's things. T was here and I think that he may have a session himself on Monday. He has lots of stuff too - so many t-shirts! And like I said, I am far from a capsule wardrobe, but I'm a lot closer than I was at noon today.

And as crazy as it was, I just want to keep getting rid of stuff. The shelves in my closet? I'm cleaning those tomorrow. There are things that belong to MT and I won't touch those, but my stuff is either going away or being stored neatly. I don't need the things. I need the peace of mind that comes from clean clear spaces.

Tomorrow I need to spend some time outside, but I will work on clearing some more space inside, too. I'm only sorry that I'll have to wait for MT to come back to take all these bags to Goodwill. They won't fit in my car!

Talk to you tomorrow...