I am happy to report that the state of my house has returned to this side of qualifying for the National Disaster Criteria List. With being back and forth to Tracey’s, going to Ocean Shores, buying the new computer (hence cleaning off my desk) and selling my car (which meant the giant tote of Christmas decorations no longer had a home in the back of the car), my house has been in a total state of chaos for the last couple of months. I had cleaned the car out a few months ago and brought in the toboggan that had been in the back with all my other odds and ends sitting in it so that had been sitting around for several months with a pile of junk on it. Add to that all the other assorted crap that’s entered the house, my art supplies, etc., and you have a recipe for one big eyesore of a mess. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s my house being a mess and to have stuff lying around everywhere. I HATE seeing crap piled up everywhere I look. I can’t relax when every room has junk stacked up. I have managed to keep my room and the kitchen and living room relatively tidy, but when that tote is sitting in the hallway (and I have the bruises on my legs to prove it, since I’ve run into the sharp edges several times, damnit!) and there’s two other major piles of crap that you see when going between those rooms, it still feels like the whole house is a wreck.
Have I made it abundantly clear how much I hate a messy house?!?!?!
I just spent the past three hours sorting through paperwork that was lying on the ground, which had previously been lying all over my desk. I went through the closet in the hallway and pulled out all the boxes for electronics that I had been saving in case I needed to return something. Laptop, iPAQ, external hard drive, waffle maker, camera (that I’ve had for about four years). I had a pile of boxes to bring downstairs. Tidied up the hall closet a little to make room for some of the stuff that’s been lying around. I also went through my lateral file and threw out a bunch of crap that had been in there that I no longer need. It feels good to clean out stuff sometimes, so it doesn’t feel like every area of storage is absolutely busting at the seams.
Clean-A-Palooza: The Sequel begins tomorrow with the requisite cleaning chores – bathroom, cat box, vacuum (which, to my horror, has not been done in WEEKS – UUUUUUGHHHHH!!!), and bringing the Xmas tote and other junk downstairs to storage. I’m sure there will be a mini cleaning spree of the storage, too, just to make room for the stuff I’m bringing down. Those totes are handy, but when you have a limited space for storage, it’s hard to get everything to fit in there without the door refusing to close. I will succeed! Also need to do some laundry, but don’t know if I’ll get to that this weekend or not. I may throw a load in here and there while I’m sitting around. Need to clean out my closet and dresser again – maximum capacity has pretty well been reached there. It’s hard for me to throw out clothes, though! I always put them downstairs so someone can take them. I put a jacket and a fleece down there earlier.
I woke up this morning – BING! – at 8:07am. I went to bed at 1:00am. How annoying! Was up late trying to load software and tweak Carol’s new laptop – in exchange for $125. Didn’t realize that she got the 64-bit version of Vista so ACT wouldn’t load onto it, so I don’t know what she’s going to want to do with it. Hopefully, I won’t have to start all over again since I already spent about 4 hours tweaking stuff. I’ve thought about starting a tech support company to help people with their computers. I think it would be novel to have a woman offering those services – something other women could trust over some random guy.
I had to go by Vancity to get a new debit card since mine got damaged the other day and also to found out what was going on with my RSP thing since the money they said they were going to deposit into my account wasn’t showing up. Turns out that, because I cashed in those other RSPs earlier this year, it put what they take out for withholding into a higher tax backet, so not only did they take the whole $5,200 even though I told them to only take $5,000 and ended up sending CRA over $800, when I was expecting them to send $500 to them and I’d have about $300 left over, plus another $200 in my RSP savings account. I got a check from Ian yesterday when I went to meet with him and also got a small check from Lynn in the mail today so I deposited those and had to transfer some over to my personal account to cover the $40 the RSP loans had overdrawn my line of credit. Well, at least CRA got a good chunk to cover the RSP income. I know all this stuff is working in my favour in the long-run, but damn, it sucks in the short term to not have the money you think you’re going to have.
I had lunch with Nicole Pogue from Rhino Print Solutions today. She is a hoot. It’s wild how, sometimes, you can just gel with someone right away. The first time I ever talked to her when she was cold calling me as a work lead, we talked for an hour and a half. Reminds me of the first time I ever met Joyce – same exact thing, an hour and a half of talking the first time I ever met her. We went to Thai House for lunch and, my God, the food is tasty there! She ordered some sort of pork dish with spinach and onions and it was heavenly as well. We talked about any and everything. It’s weird how much we have in common – same age, both have mothers around the same age who are in poor health, both grew up not wanting to be like our mothers, both involved with people who behaved one way in the beginning and cooled off considerably after the fact. Interesting. She’s one of those people that, right away, I felt like I could be really good friends with. She’s very energetic (borderline ADD, I think, but hell, I’m used to that!) and hilarious. I thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with her. She drove me back here so I could loan her some books. I was telling her about Eat, Pray, Love and told her it was a great book. I also lent her two of Jennifer Weiner’s books and I think she’ll like them, especially because she has a young son, so I’m sure she’ll identify with the characters. We talked a bit about my Cayenne idea and I showed her the printouts I’d done of the business card and letterhead layouts I’ve done so far. Some interesting feedback and she was telling me I should interview myself the same way I would a client to really get to what I want it to be about. I may do a design brief for myself – never thought of doing that!
I did some work related stuff when Nicole had left and then went to lie down for a while about 4:30pm and got up before 6:30pm and started on my cleaning spree.
I smell ripe right about now from bustling around the house for three hours, but too tired to go deal with the whole bath routine, so I’ll just take a bath when I get up tomorrow.
Going to watch some TV and possibly read for a while before I head to sleep.
Anxiety hasn’t been too bad today. A little bit before meeting Nicole and a little at a couple of other times in the day, but nothing major. Didn’t eat great today, so I was feeling a little anxious before I ate.
Ok, so I wanna try to start keeping a gratitude journal in my entries again, so here goes….
Today, I am grateful for: Nice weather, having been taken out for a nice lunch and enjoying good conversation with Nicole, my house getting back into order, no major anxiety today, getting some things on my to-do list taken care of, nice call with my Mom, time on my own