Something has to done about all this stuff. Luckily, I have a packrat gene and not a hoarder gene, so getting rid of stuff is generally not a problem, aside from finding the time and energy to get that done. The last couple years, i’ve been really good at getting rid of stuff (or using it) in a timely manner, but … sometimes the stuff just really starts to stack up, and then it feels like an overwhelming task to get rid of anything or even to start getting rid of anything. Have you ever sat back in your chair and looked at a huge project and just stalled on starting in on it because OMG, where to begin? I think we all have at least once in our lives!

All the same, I need to get started getting rid of stuff, and the easiest way to do that is to start in on what I call my arts and crafts junk^† … the ever growing pile that resides in my current arts and crafts workspace (aka the kitchen). It didn’t start out as a huge pile. Just two smallish boxes of art supplies and interesting things. I bought a large plastic storage box a while back, organized the lot of it in there, and vowed to keep the pile down to only what would fit in said storage box. Naturally, I totally failed at this. It is now a pile of boxes, bags, and miscellaneous bric-a-brac. It’s all really interesting stuff, I assure you! Things that gave me ideas or put thoughts in my head of some sort, but it really hasn’t been sorted or judged worthy or unworthy, and since I’ve mostly been doing paintings and drawings for the last year or so, none of it has been getting used either.

Since that pile seemed like a good place to start getting rid of stuff (and a quick way too), yesterday, I dug into it, fully intending to get rid of lots of stuff. I sent half a trash bin of stuff on its way out of my life, and then, I started finding really interesting stuff and got overwhelmed, tired, and cranky. I made myself a cup of coffee, walked away from the mess I’d made in the kitchen, and began contemplating my situation on the Tree of Woe (with a soundtrack of my ever helpful cats rustling through and gnawing on the stuff tossed and stacked around the kitchen). That’s when it came to me: I need to find a way to facilitate getting rid of this interesting stuff in a way that is fun and creative rather than annoying and tiring!

Therefore, I have devised a challenge for myself, and I’ve decided on some rules. You know I love rules!

1. One small box or bag … or collection of loose objects that would fill one small box or bag … to be selected each Sunday.

2. Within the next seven day period, all objects in each collection, box, or bag, must be repurposed into something useful, used to create something artful, placed in a box for donation, or tossed in the trash or recycling bin.

3. If, at the end of the seven day period, the prior rule has not been accomplished, all items must then be placed into the appropriate outgoing receptacle (trash, recycling, donation).

4. One unused item each week can be carried over to the next week’s collection, but no item can be carried over a second week without being used. At the end of its second week in a collection, the item must be placed in the appropriate outgoing receptacle if not used.

5. a) If all items in a collection are used before the seven day period has expired, the remaining time may either be “waited out” or the next week’s collection can be selected/begun early with the extra time added to its seven day period. b) If all items in a collection are recycled/donated/trashed before the seven day period has expired, the next collection must be selected immediately with the extra time added to that collection’s work period (maximum 14 days). c) If items in a collection have been both used and recycled/donated/trashed before the seven day period has expired, any leftover time must be waited out.

6. Purchased art/craft supplies (glue, paint, tools, etc.) have a permanent pass from forced donation/recycling/trashing (though such will be allowed if desired), but they MUST be placed in their proper storage location. If no such proper storage location currently exists, one must be created.

7. Each week’s collection will be photographed and posted on my blog no later than Monday noon. Update photos during the week are at my discretion. A final photo of any objects repurposed or created during the seven day period and objects which will be removed from the household, as well as the item to be carried over to the next week (if any), will also be posted no later than Monday noon.

8. Whining, wailing, and the gnashing of teeth is both allowed and expected. Breaking the rules is not.

And there you have the rules of the game! I’ll be starting my personal decluttering creativity challenge this Sunday, so stay tuned for those mandated blog posts!

1. † To be fair, the majority of the boxes in the Box Room are also arts and crafts junk, but one pile at a time, right? The Box Room will be next, right after the pile in the living room.

And the curls … the CURLS! I don’t even have a clue how to deal with them. The only reason I
haven’t gone to get my hair cut short again, aside from laziness, is that I’m curious to see how it looks even longer. It might be really lovely! But, with that said, I don’t know how much longer I can tolerate the wildness of my hair (or the gray hairs either).

Sunday, Lin set about installing them. Naturally, it wasn’t as easy as it should have been, and he ended up having to go back to the store to buy everything needed to totally replace the plumbing under the kitchen sink. All of it. Ugh. Poor Lin!

He did a wonderful job, and I love, love, love the kitchen sink now. It’s just works so well, it really highlights just how very terrible the kitchen sink was before … with its 1960 fixtures and broken disposal and plumbing held together with duct tape (prior owners obviously not plumbers – we’ve found other plumbing held together with duct tape too). Now it has a nice high gooseneck faucet with pull-out sprayer (never had a sprayer – I love the sprayer), an oh-so-quiet Insinkerator garbage disposal (really, it’s really quiet), and plumbing that drains everything away FAST (and doesn’t leak).

How about a couple photos?

Here’s the wonderful sprayer faucet. It’s not exactly what I wanted, but I’ve discovered I have expensive tastes. This was as close as we could get to what I wanted without breaking the bank. I love it though, and I think the one I was in love with would have eventually annoyed me anyway. And ignore the wretched tile and awful counter. I have spent untold hours and gallons of chemicals scrubbing it all, and this is the best it gets.

Here’s the underlying plumbing! Lin made sure everything was perfect, and he did a wonderful job on it! I wasn’t expecting new plumbing just yet, and I know he wasn’t thrilled about having to get into it yesterday, but I’m super-duper happy to have all new plumbing under there and no more leaks! And yeah, the cabinet is wretched too. Someday in the future it will all be going away. It’s not high on the list, but it’s on the list.

Now I want to go do tonight’s dishes! I am never going to enjoy doing dishes, but it goes so much more quickly and easily now. Doesn’t feel quite as much like torture anymore. Wich isn’t to say I won’t still complain about doing dishes from time to time, but I promise to complain less! LOL!

And … I LOVE MY HUSBAND!

Thank you, Donna S. … THANK YOU!

I saw these ice cube trays on Amazon a while back when I was looking for something else, and as those of you who know me can imagine, they got the wheels in my head turning. I promise I will use them for ice cubes and Jello jigglers at least a few times before I start using them for more nefarious artistic purposes. But you know I’ll eventually be putting something other than water in them. LOL!

Awesome! Wheeeee!

Of course, there are downsides to growing older. Gray hair and wrinkles. They are easy enough to ignore. I just don’t spend a lot of time looking in mirrors or worrying about it. There’s not much a person can do for gray hair and wrinkles without spending a load of money, and I’m pretty sure I’ll never be the sort to spend a load of money fighting the outward signs of my age. Maybe I’ll revisit the concept of trying to look younger than I am when I have a load of spare cash and more wrinkles and gray hair, but have you ever read about what exactly a face lift (or any sort of facial plastic surgery) entails? I can’t imagine ever putting myself through that just in the name of smooth skin and the illusion of youthful vigor.

Other downsides of growing older aren’t so easily ignored. I don’t have as much energy as I once did. I can’t seem to get as much done in a day. I move slower, feel more tired, and sometimes my brain doesn’t give me the answers I’m looking for as quickly as it once did. Oh sure, I can still push myself just as hard as ever, burning the candle at both ends and forcing my body and mind to get done what needs doing, but afterwards, I’ll be paying for it by it being too fatigued to do much of anything for a couple of days. The answer, of course, is to slow down and accept that my body and mind aren’t as nimble as they were in my twenties. I’m doing the best I can to balance the pressure I put on myself to do things with my ability to do them as fast as I’d like. I’ll eventually strike the right balance. I get better at it all the time.

But there are upsides to nearing fifty too! I’ve lived a life. I’ve done things and seen things and watched world events unfold in the world around me for almost a half a century. I know things. A lot of things! That’s pretty awesome. It’s also sometimes pretty sad, because right now I see the world trying to turn backwards to a time and mental space I’ve see us work to move beyond before. It’s also great that I’m finally at an age where most people treat me like an adult and don’t immediately discount things I’m saying or feeling because I’m young. To be certain, some people still treat me like I’m a kid with no sense or intelligence, but I suspect that now has more to do with my being female than my age … and that has more to do with how America is seemingly backsliding on women’s rights (or at least really trying to roll back that clock). But at least it’s not my age holding me back anymore! LOL!

So I’m a year older, and I’m OK with that. Sure, there are more gray hairs and wrinkles, and I’m moving slower than ever, but I’m smarter, know more than ever, and the things I do get done are done well and masterfully, and I don’t feel so much like I am floundering though life with a blindfold on anymore. Also, I have a wonderful husband I have had the joy of spending the last twenty years of my life with and a gaggle of friends I love and who love me in return. I have a home to live in that I love, even if it’s a little run down and worn around the edges and a collection of adorable cats to keep me entertained and on my toes. I have my work and hobbies, both of which bring me happiness. I can’t complain too much.

Growing older is inevitable, and so far, I seem to be doing OK at the game of life. I’d like to be doing better, but like I said, I still have a few decades on this spot of earth, and I’ll just keep pushing forward and setting goals, even if it takes me a bit longer to shuffle up to them. LOL! Viva middle age!

Two weeks ago, I signed up to take part in a Secret Valentine Exchange over at The Cheeseblarg (a really funny blog you should be reading regularly). Just to do something fun and maybe get something in my mailbox that wasn’t work, family, or bill related … and to spread some of that mailbox love to someone else, ’cause it’s always nice to get somewhat unexpected packages containing surprises.

Of course, I failed to look at my calendar before signing up, and didn’t realize I was about to start the usual two weeks of insane work-related deadlines I face every year at this very the of year. Duh! But fun things are always fun, even if the rest of my life is kind of going nuts around it, so I stalked the person I was to send a gift to and came up with an idea and managed to pull it off! Yeah!

Can’t tell you about what I sent out, because it only went out on Wednesday. I can tell you what I got from my Secret Valentine! I arrived last weekend, and I’ve been trying to sit down and write a post since then, but by the time I got to the point of each day when I was sitting still, my brain was basically fried, and I only felt like turning off said brain by Tweeting and playing Skyrim (more on this in a minute).

I’d planned to take a photo to illustrate what my gift was, but to be honest, I feel like total crap today. Taking a photo would involve having to locate my camera, set up an artificial lighting situation to compensate for the gloominess of the day, locating the camera data cable, and then blah, blah, blah. Anyway, you’re just going to have to use your imagination. It won’t be hard. I promise.

The first thing to arrive was a bag of keyboard keys! Remember I was begging for anyone who wanted and could to pop keys off broken keyboards for an art project I wants to get started on? Yippee! She stalked my blog and fulfilled a need! Now I would have been happy enough with that, because every package of keyboard keys that arrives gets me that much closer to making this really cool art piece I have in my head (and truly, the outpouring of keyboard key love has been awesome). And, the more keys I have, the bigger it can be! So yes, very happy with keyboard keys!

But then a couple days later, I got another package arrived containing a copy of Regresty: When DIY Meets WTF, a book from the web site of the same name (also a blog you should be reading regularly). Well, I giggled like a little girl upon ripping open that package! I love Regretsy so much, and now I can enjoy some of it without electricity or internet like the quasi-Luddite I am becoming. I also suspect it will eventually find a place of honor as The Bathroom Book. And yes, that IS a place of honor for a book. Good bathroom reading material is important! LOL!

So thank you, Cheeseblarg Secret Valentine! THANK YOU! I totally needed something to put a smile on my face in the middle of two extremely crazy weeks, and you did it perfectly! Made me giggle and smile, and that’s just what I needed!

Aside from being crazy busy and now a little sickish, a couple weeks ago, Lin rented a copy of Skyrim for the PS3, and we totally fell in love with the game. The morning after he returned it to RedBox, I went and bought it for him as an early birthday present. He’s been playing the hell out of it. So have I, when I had time to sit still and goof off. It really is an excellent game, if you like the whole Dungeons and Dragons sort of thing (which Lin and I do). I hated spending so much money on a game, but I suspect we’ll be getting our money’s worth. In fact, I think we already have. LOL!

That’s about it! Everything else is either work related and can’t be talked about on the old blog (or anywhere), or is family related weirdness I’m just not going to talk about on the old blog. Life’s been busy and crazy, and I’m looking forward to the second week of March when all the deadlines will be passed, spring will be right around the corner, and my life will chill out a bit and settles into a slower, healthier rhythm. Mostly, I’m looking forward to spending more time making art … and playing Skyrim. LOL!

And now … I’m going to go take some cold medicine, because I’m 99.9% certain I caught a cold from someone I encountered this week. Boo. Hiss. Stay home when you’re sick people! Or at least use hand sanitizer and tissues appropriately!

——————–

NOTE: I wrote this post hours ago. Just as I was finishing it up, my mother called, then Lin called, and then I took the cold medicine and turned in the Playstation … and I never did hit the the post button. Yup, I’m brain dead today!

“Wanna run?” Lin said.

“Yes!” I shouted as I took off running.

Lin called out from somewhere behind me that he was stopping. He was close enough to make it. By that time, I was already crossing the street. Still running, and I didn’t stop until I got to the truck. Running. Running and enjoying it.

I’d run about the distance of a block. Not far by any stretch of the imagination, but that was the furthest I had run in, well, probably years. A lot of years. As I was running, I noticed a few things.

It felt good. I wasn’t pushing myself at all, just casually running, and it felt so good! My legs were strong and sturdy underneath me. My footings were sound. When I finally stopped, my breathing was as slow and steady as it would have been had I strolled along at a snail’s pace. My heart was still beating out a steady calm rhythm. Even more importantly perhaps, nothing hurt. Not the back, the neck, the bum knee or ankle. Every single part of me felt vital, alive, and STRONG. I felt better during that one short jog than I have in weeks, maybe months. Possibly even years.

I don’t know how far I could run. How fast. At what point would it stop being fun and feeling good and start feeling awful. I think I’m curious to find out. I’d planned to start walking when the weather outside turned warm, but now I think I’d rather see just how much running ability might still be within me.

I used to run everywhere, before I was a smoker and spent too much of my day sitting. I used to love running, and I was good at it … fast and with an excellent reserve for endurance over distance. While I doubt I’ll ever be able to run as fast or as long as I did in my youth, I’m curious enough to give it a try, so this spring I’ll be buying me some good running shoes and RUNNING!

I can’t believe it myself. Me willingly running? But what I felt during that be short sprint down a city street felt better than any drug, and it sparked joyful memories in my body and mind. I have to see if I can recapture that sensation! LOL!

As the newscaster said the words “A man with a waist of 40 inches or more” the photo used was a naked man’s waist with a tape measure around it. The numbers on the tape measure read 40″, and it was obviously an accurate representation of a less than buff man’s waistline.

As the newscaster said the words “A woman with a waist of 35 inches or more” the photo used was a naked woman’s waist with a tape measure loosely held around it, the numbers unreadable, and it was obviously an image of a very buff woman’s waistline.

Now I am not all that buff, but I am (and always have been) rather small in size. I have also sewn more small-sized women’s clothing than I care to admit. I know what smaller waist sizes measure within an inch or two without having to get out a tape measure. The waistline used to graphically represent a woman’s waistline “of 35 inches or more” was smaller than my own waist measurement, which means it’s was in the low twenties … at least more than ten inches less than the 35 inch diabetes “warning” measurement.

And people wonder why women have a skewed perspective of their own bodies? This is a perfect example of the sort of –for lack of a better word– programming women get. Men’s bodies depicted accurately and discussed accurately, and women’s bodies being represented irrationally. A twenty-something inch waist being shown to demonstrate a 35 inch waist. It’s a two-fold negative message.

Women who are aware of what a 35 inch waist actually looks like, because they do or have owned one, are reminded that a woman with a 35 inch waist isn’t appropriate or okay enough to be show on the morning news. Women’s waists should always look like flat boards or they shouldn’t be seen publicly.

Women who own small waistlines, in the range of the image shown or smaller, are made to feel that they are in the range of body sizes that need to worry about pre-diabetes, and they better not gain any weight at all or they’ll be unhealthy. They might even get the impression that they are already overweight, if they are the sort of person prone to eating disorders and/or skewed personal body image.

Anyway, it chapped my hide enough in my pre-coffee state to write this post, mostly because I’ve been in women’s clothing departments a lot lately shopping for new clothes, and I’ve noticed a few annoying instances of the misrepresentation of women’s bodies out there too. For example, images of women wearing the clothing on sale in the juniors and standard sized departments who are those sizes and women in the plus sized department who are also small enough to wear junior sized clothing and not the plus sized versions being sold below them. If there are any images of women in the plus sized department at all.

As a society, we are quite honest about the varied and sundry shapes of the male form, and so all but the most extremely large men own bodies that are viewed as natural and acceptable. Women’s bodies are nearly always depicted as Playboy Bunnies or runway models, and so anyone who doesn’t happen to fit into that particular mold is seen as fat/ugly/unfit/unnatural … and unacceptable.

If we could just start showing real women’s bodies as they actually exist, at least in health segments on the morning news, if not in advertising, it would go a long way to making the female firm of all shapes and sizes acceptable by society, and maybe women could stop stressing out about their waistlines and start loving themselves.

And now I’m going to go make my coffee and change the TV channel before the morning news rotates around to that health segment a second time and raises my ire again.

Well … I hate it too.

Sure, it’s all clean and newly painted and has all new fixtures, but the actual experience of trying to buy groceries there is awful. The general layout of the place is unlike any other grocery store. Cheeses, instead of being in the dairy area are sprinkled here and there. I never did find the bags of grated cheeses. Maybe they don’t even have any. Canned vegetables, likewise, are also not all in one place. I’m sure they sell toilet paper and paper towels, but I never happened across them. These are just examples. I could go on.

When I did find the things I had on my list, I found they had at most two or three varieties/brands available, and those brands tended to be the worst, cheapest, and least healthy options. It’s a store practically stocked entirely with generic brands. And don’t ask me about the coffee selection. I wasn’t expecting to find fair trade organic whole beans imported from around the world, but I would have been happy to find a bag of Starbucks (and I hate Starbucks coffee).

The lack of variety and selection extended to the produce department as well. There were two kinds of tomatoes. Large round ones and small Romas. There were NO cherry tomatoes of any kind. None. I have shopped in a lot of little grocery stores and odd shops selling food, and well … even convenience stores have some kind of cherry tomato. It wasn’t just cherry tomatoes that we’re missing. The produce department took up a ton of space, but it barely had anything in it. Just piles and piles of a few things.

I can’t even bring myself to talk about the meat department. All I’ll say is … large plexiglass bins full of preseasoned chicken parts and scoops. The rest is best left to your imagination.

Checking out went more quickly than ever. They had more than two registers open for a change, and that was nice. The experience of not being able to find what I needed (because who knows where it might be hidden, if they even had it), the low quality of nearly all the products I did find, and the fact I know I spent more for less product, has left me sad. The store is even less useful than it was before they remodeled and modernized it. It’s a shame the store closest to my home sucks so badly.

I’m even more sad for the people who have to shop there. I have options. I can get in the truck and drive to Tech Ridge or anywhere else to find the items I want, but I remember what it was like when I wasn’t so blessed. Back when I was walking or riding the bus to get groceries, had I been stuck shopping at a store like this newly remade HEB, my diet would have been total crap by default, because there wouldn’t have been any choice. So I’m a little sad for myself that my neighborhood store is so awful, but mostly, I’m sad for the rest of the people in my ‘hood who have no options other than shopping at that crappy, crappy store full of overpriced less-than-nutritious crap.

I won’t be going back. I’d hoped at the very least it would be a place I could go to pick up basic items when I didn’t feel like going to Tech Ridge, but it’s not even going to be good for that. I wouldn’t even plunder that store in the event of a zombie apocalypse.

After our short stroll and a nice adult beverage, we finally went into the museum proper to look at the exhibits. Lauren’s work was a thousand times more fabulous in person than it was in photographs! I’d really been looking forward to seeing her work in person, and it did not disappoint. Her drawings were detailed and intriguing, her smaller boxed and hung paper and charcoal pieces were gorgeous, but her large installation pieces were just as stunning as I expected them to be.

Expanses of black paper vegetation, sparkling charcoal soil, and reflective plexi water. Like a fractal, they contained more detail the closer one looked, and of course, I got my nose right up on them, because I do love the details. I also love paper and charcoal. As we were leaving the building, we had the opportunity to chat with Lauren and tell her how much we loved her work. Meeting the artist is always awesome! She was really sweet, even though I’m sure she had much more important people to pay attention to than us.

Steve’s work was also interesting. Two pieces involved orbs, and as I’m sure you all know, I’m more than a little fond of orbs. One was especially interesting to me … an arrangement of balls of various strings and twines in a variety of sizes. I could have stared at it for hours. Loved the textures and gentle natural colors! Some of his works didn’t speak to me personally, but they were lovely. I’m glad I had a chance to see his works, even though they weren’t all to my liking. All art can’t and doesn’t have to speak to all people, after all!

We went back outside and enjoyed some more wine and beer while we huddled by one of the propane heaters and talked about the art and scenery. I finished my wine before Lin’s beer was gone, so I wandered back inside to look at the art more time. Once I’d finished storing it all to my memories, Lin and I made the somewhat excessive (and chilly) trek back to the truck and headed to Outback Steakhouse for what was a really huge and completely tasty meal. And more wine, of course!

Last night was a great night! Tomorrow night,we head downtown to the Arthouse for an exhibition preview party. Should be fun too, though it’s going to be even colder now that Winter has set in again for a bit. All the same, I’m looking forward to going. Love going to parties, meeting people, and looking at art! Always inspires me to get back to work on my own, and I should toddle off to the “studio” right now and get to work. I have so many things started. Need to get some finished!