One more thing.....

My friend Joanne just helped jar me back into reality with her post today. It's not Christmas any more. Our tree is still up, and the stockings still hung. Maybe it's denial, I love Christmas so much. Or maybe it's the hope that Saint Nick is still looking for my house.

The year that could be.

I'm one prone to phases, and I'm wondering, am I a big flake? (don't answer that) Or can we call it spontaneous living? (I like that better) For instance I've put on my life list that I'd like to live in a small historic town, like Stars Hollow. And then other days I decide I'd like to live in the big city within walking distance to everything I need, like Pittsburgh. And there is my proverbial "van down by the river". My constant back up plan. The odds are there I tell you, as I am sure we have a relative somewhere that will let us park our van down by the river when the time comes.

I think the core of who I am doesn't waver, but my favorite things seem to come and go in season. Like, this month I've been on a peanut butter and banana kick. I have it every day for breakfast. A couple months ago it was egg white breakfast tacos on whole wheat tortillas, and then the next month oatmeal from scratch. Every day. I mean, I don't stop liking egg white tacos on whole wheat tortillas, I just become taken with the next one, the oatmeal for instance. I read a magazine article and decided I would eat oatmeal to save my life, and loved it. I'll get back to the tacos eventually. This habit of not having a habit makes for a very cluttered kitchen, pantry, and refrigerator. It also causes me to wander through the grocery store, sometimes going down the same aisle 3 times before I'm done. I do some of my best thinking there. But that is another discussion for another day all together. It makes my husband CRAZY.

Music is another area that I wander in and out of. Jazz, Miles Davis for days. Or I get on a Billie Holiday groove. I once listened to the same Superchick CD for over a month straight every day. I've been craving opera lately. Chris is taking me to see Roberto Devereux next weekend. I have referred to the variety I have bookmarked in Pandora in this post, so I bet you get how far my taste in music varies. And I have to be in the MOOD to listen. Can't mix it all up. I have music phases.

Maybe all of these are symptoms of the clutter disorder I seem to have. I think I thrive on it. I'm constantly zooming through the clutter in my mind, and in my immediate world. So I ask you, might this be the year that I get on one track and stay there? Get organized for once and stay focused? I don't know if I would be me if I did. I'm not sure that life would have the same zest without my clutter.

And here Chris, April and Mavis are on New Years Eve. I began this year surrounded with love, one of the things in my life that does not waver. No phases in the love I have for my family.

The full moon and a dozen other things that have been on my mind...

The moon was a beautiful full one tonight. And as I read here, the closest to us it has been all year. Had it not been so cold, we would have done some moon and star gazing from the back yard tonight after the nice little dinner date we had. This is the time of year that I miss spending time out in the back yard. If I had a pile of money, I would build a gas fire pit like the one we sat around in San Diego. Nice, that would be real nice. I miss Bernie Mac. I digress.

Speaking of cold, did you hear about the snow in New Orleans this week? Crazy. Have you ever said "when hell freezes over"? You should be careful saying that from now on. I'm not saying the NOLA is hell, I'm just saying that if there is lake effect snow and the lake is Pontchartrain, then hell could be next. I have family in NOLA. They hollered about the snow on Facebook. It sounded like fun.

Speaking of Facebook, I've gone now and done something foolish..got a Facebook page. I barely keep up with this blog, Twitter, and my 2 email addresses. My plan is to manage it all from the iPhone. I will go blind trying to read the tiny screen for extended periods of time, but I'll look cool.

Speaking of the iPhone, I love my iPhone. I have an addiction to the App Store on iTunes. I have 4 pages of Apps on my phone, and 5 of them are weather apps. 4 Twitter Apps, 3 for restaurants and points of interest. I have Ebay, Amazon, and of course the voice activated Google - for when I'm driving down the road and need to Google. I love Google. I've got a novel by E.M. Forster that I'm reading in drive thru lanes. I only have 2 games, but they are my favorites - Ms. Pacman and Crash Bandicoot. There is the virtual Zippo lighter, just in case I'm at a concert and feel so inclined. Ooh, and Shazam. I've never used it but I might need it some day, at a concert. And then there are the Apps I use to listen to radio stations, and Pandora. I love Pandora. I have a Mazzy Star station on Pandora and that's just the best. I also have a KC and the Sunshine Band station, a Family Force 5 station, and a Mozart station. My neighbors at the office hate me. Chris says that Pandora and Satellite Radio are going to kill his career. Why can't they all just get along?

I have achieved electronic clutter. And I'm OK with that.

There were a few other things on my mind, but Mavis has chewed off one of my toes and is starting on a second. Jealous dog. It's probably for the best, the rest was going to be a rant. Nobody likes a rant.

Clutter

I needed nail polish remover today so I looked under the sink where it normally is. We've been trying to tackle the clutter so there have been a few things tossed out from beneath the sink revealing what is in the way back. Here is what I found for nail polish remover down there. Do you think it will cause a chemical explosion if I pour them all into the same bottle? I'm going to do it outside just in case.

Excuse #52

I have been a terrible blogger the last few weeks. Neglectful etc etc. You could probably say I've also been lacking in the wife, mother, sister, daughter (well maybe not so much that one), employee, and friend department. Mavis even seems to be telling me in her way that even she prefers to be around her daddy more than me. THAT's an all time low. I'm so out of whack even my dog won't give me the time of day. I'm gonna have to find my bootstraps, then start pulling. I'm in a terrible slump! Just look at my office!

I had to get up, stand at the door and just look at it earlier today. It's time to burn some of this stuff in the trashcan and make everyone believe I never saw it when they ask "where's that copy of the soandso agreement"..and so on (naw, I'd never do that, really I wouldn't.) That copy of Treasury and Risk magazine is months old. I should at least get rid of that. I do think I have a good excuse for the old mags and piles of paper though. I do. The management here at the office has decided that recycling costs too much. I'm not kidding. I haul stuff home to recycle. So there, it's the companies fault that my office is such a mess.

I have one 5lb dog that eats a quarter cup of food a day, how hard can it be to keep up with that? The kids are in college, out of the house. I do however have to keep up with that sweet man I'm married to. That is A WHOLE LOT like having a little kid at home sometimes. But I'm not raising 5 kids while in command of the State of Alaska, and at the same time running for Vice President of the USA. I'm pretty sure I don't have a good excuse for such a messy existence.

Seriously (finger now pointed at my face) you've got to grab ahold of yourself woman! People need you. You need you. You have a life list to accomplish. You have a life list that you haven't even blogged about yet.

Major slacker I am, and I had such high hopes for myself.

I shall start taking my vitamins again, pay attention to all the sticky notes I've left myself, and I will find those bootstraps.

use #497 for a cork

Tonight I get home from work and the husband is getting his hands dirty working on the sprinkler system. I have Sushi and a bottle of wine. I'm really looking forward to some downtime with him, and he has a broken sprinkler part in his hand chanting "must go to Home Depot" as a man will do. The lawn really did need to be watered, but I didn't want him to go. Super quick I shuffle through the Rolodex in my head of all the clutter we have in the house. Piles and stacks that have caused me fits and shame and countless other feelings. I can't seem to get rid of it. Probably because I'm so stinkin fond of so much of it. Surely I have something that'll save us a trip to Home Depot tonight. It hits me, wine bottle cork! We needed to cap the sprinkler head, and I have LOTS of those. A use for my clutter! Validation!




It worked too, like a charm. There was so much charm that as soon as we watered it promptly began to rain. Not a little rain, but big, windy, loud lightning and thunder rain. My favorite kind. It's been raining for over an hour, still pouring and booming out there. Now I want to dig through the bowl of corks and remember the stories that go with them all. 'Cause you know there's a story for each one.

We had a good night. I'm glad I have clutter - today anyway. Today I will embrace the clutter and just appreciate who I am.

Fortune Cookies

I love to eat Fortune Cookies. I keep a stash of them from various places in my office. Ever so often I will get a "fortune" that is a keeper. Not sure why they call them Fortune Cookies since most of them enclose just bits of wisdom. Anyway, I will be posting my favorites here under the label "Read on a Fortune Cookie". Mostly because they are bits that I want to remember, and I'm trying to reduce the clutter just a teensy tinsy bit.