20 Random Things

1) I sleep with a stocking cap on in the winter, you lose a lot of body heat from your head and this keeps me warm.

2) I have traveled cross-country in a semi-truck with two adults, two children, and a cat (I was one of the kids). The cat was never the same afterwards ......

3) I've eaten at Thomas Keller's 'French Laundry', which is easily the most expensive meal I've eaten and was a year long wait for a reservation.

4) I've walked across 5 feet of hot coals without burning my feet.

5) I've never had a speeding ticket.

6) I was born in Las Vegas but have never gambled.

7) I dislike parking on streets with parking meters and will park further away to avoid them.

8) I won't eat at the same place place two days in a row because I don't want them to recognize me. ;)

9) If I purposefully go shopping somewhere, I won't wear clothes that have been purchased at that store.

10) I've lived in Arizona, California, Minnesota, Nevada, and Texas.

11) I once took a typing test with only one word on the test: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

12) I used to use my library card so much that I memorized the barcode number on the card and would check out books that way instead of with the card.

13) My right hand is always colder than my left -- blame it on the mouse?

14) My second favorite movie is 'When Harry Met Sally'.

15) My Father was 17 years old when my Mother was born.

16) I don't like seafood (crab, lobster, etc) but enjoy fish.

17) I've been to (and enjoyed) an all-women's nude spa.

18) I have a red car, two red purses, and red shoes but never wear the color red in clothes.

19) I've been to at least 40 of the 50 states.

20) Despite my age, I didn't see the Star Wars movies until they were re-released to theaters in the mid-90's.

Smoooooothie

Right now, my favorite smoothie is Banana-Raspberry.

2-4 bananas (2 large, 4 small, 3 med, etc)
1/2 cup raspberries (I use frozen)
1/2 cup water

Blend.
Inhale.

The raspberries really cut the sweetness of the bananas and make the texture not as "banana-y". It's also a gorgeous pink color.

Normally I don't drink smoothies without greens but am trying a few new recipes. Another one I'll be trying is Banana-Mint which is just bananas and mint. It sounds tasty in a strange way.

-=-

Work is dissatisfying. I'm trying to make it a good place for me and some days are such a struggle. In the grand scheme of things, I don't want to leave and start over but there are moments (a lot of them!) where I feel I have no choice. I just wonder if I'll ever find a place that I can be happy at. Am I asking too much?

-=-

I used the Inbox Zero method on both my personal and work email inboxes. They look a bit bare now .. it feels nice on one hand and scary on another. Anyway, going to work on keeping it that way - though I've never felt I have a problem with email. I'm the type of person (always have been) where if I haven't touched it in a couple months I'd delete it. Now I'm just going to accelerate that a bit.

Of course, using gmail for everything means that nothing is really deleted. It's just not viewable in the main box. If I need it, I can retrieve it. On one hand, I had to say that it's an interesting way to handle email (the way gmail does) but it is really wasteful too. Who needs gigs of email?

Crazy.

This all goes along with my annual nesting months where I get the itch to clean and organize my house. My goal this year though is to KEEP my house clean and organized. Every year I go through this phase where I start doing Flylady and I get into habits of cleaning and then one by one they drop by the wayside and I'm back where I started.

I really do like having a clean and organized house, it feels really good but I don't like doing it all the time. What I don't get about myself is that if I follow Flylady, I'll spend LESS time cleaning overall even though I'm doing it on a daily basis than if I just crisis clean when I finally get fed up.

The psychology of change and habits must be an interesting field of study. I found a website the other day Unclutterer which in some ways makes me giddy with "oooh pretty!" and terror "oh my god how can they live like that!" I've grown up in a house that was clean but cluttered. My Mom has always had a lot of stuff and in turn, I have a lot of stuff.

I find it interesting that when I see a very clean house with no clutter (see some of the above in Unclutterer) my first instinct is to shun it and think that people can't live that way, to think that it wouldn't be comfortable to go to that house, or that I'd be terrified of messing something up. It's the opposite of my house and I'm not happy with my house, yet the extreme side feels uncomfortable to. Is there a middle-ground where you can have a home that is clean and de-clutered but not completely void of personality?

Or is lack of stuff personality too? Just a very different one ...

Over the past few years I've gotten rid of a lot of stuff and picked up some healthier homekeeping habits but not enough and I continue to work on this project.

I think the crux of the problem is that I believe on some level that having stuff in my home means I have the ability to have stuff. It's asserting on some level that I'm human and this is how I show it. Even people without homes, bagladies and the like have stuff. It's like I'm saying to the world, "Look, here is my stuff. I work hard for it and I have lots of it." I think this all goes hand-in-hand with debt too, at least in my case. I have debt and I have clutter. Or is it that I have debt and as a result have clutter?

This week, the Fly Zone is the kitchen. I have the least amount of work to do here but I'm going to tackle the dining room since it's technically a part of the kitchen. *G*

Productivity

Today was a productive day .. last night was too. I found a bunch of new blogs about being more organized and productive. I think they'll help a lot.

I feel as though there is so much more I could be doing in the typical day and I don't get it accomplished - for whatever reason. I want to do the mundane things that should be done and enjoy my time too.

Today I finally took all those bags of clothes to the Goodwill. I cleaned out my drawers and closets months back but just piled them all up and left them to sit and gather dust. It's stupid how easy it was to put them in bags and take them to the Goodwill. I just don't understand why it takes me so long to DO things, particularly when it comes to my house.

I'm going to get back into Flylady again. It's the only thing I've tried in the past that had SOME effect on my households cleanliness. I just try to do too much and then when I can't keep up with my own expectations I give up entirely.

Babysteps is what the flylady says and yet I never seem to GET that ...

Tonight, cleaning the sink out .. I always do like it when my sink is clean.

Today I also cleaned out all the recyclables that were taking up space in my kitchen. I think that if you ignore things long enough you cease to see them. I certainly think that's the case with these things because they've been gathering for months and I just keep piling more on top of them. I'd rather be doing one of my hobbies than cleaning my house, yet at this point I'm embarrassed to have anybody come visit. When Ryan was here a couple weeks ago I didn't want him to come into my house but I sucked it up and let him in, profusely apologizing all the the way.

I don't like that feeling. Flylady says it's, 'CHAOS - Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome' -- man is it ever chaos in here.