2004-01-22 - 3:55 p.m.

On the internal soundtrack: "Here Comes the Sun", Beatles

Monday, January 12th, 2004

I'm always feeling slug-y and inadequate (note: I do not have a self-esteem problem) when I read Kit's "what I accomplished this weekend" posts. However, this weekend I had a pleasantly productive weekend (i.e. I did not want to cry or collapse at any time), so I thought I'd write it all down to see if it looks impressive or not.

- Cleaned up my desk area
- Did some general house straightening
- Put away the Christmas boxes (empty -- we're still 100% decorated) and ironing board rather than having them littering the guest room
- Paid the utility bills
- Wrote a letter to the Philadelphia Parking Authority over an erroneous 11/14/03 ticket they are still pestering me about and haven't resolved (I have a PERMIT that the PPA people are too inobservant to see. There is no "OVER TIME LIMIT" for me.)
- Wrote several thank-you notes for Christmas
- Got my deep-winter sweaters out of storage for washing and put a bunch of clothes away
- Cleared off the top of my dresser (wanted: jewelry storage suggestions!! I have a lot of matching earring/necklace sets)
- Cleared the junk out of one clothes closet and got started on organizing the other so I can put clothes on the shelves in there
- Gathered all the paper recylables to take to the curb (I have one bag per floor and they were all full)
- Washed and hang-dried my dark sweaters
- Gave the kitchen sink and counters a scrubbing
- Picked up a fireplace poker set and desk lamp at Home Depot
- Did the weekly shopping
- Peeled garlic for Spicy Bean & Sausage Soup and cleaned up after Poindexter
- Worked about 3 hours.

This mixed in with a few hours of LJing and spousal interaction. Not bad. The important part was that I was not miserable. I wonder if this is because I have a basic organization now and have a place for just about everything, so I'm not getting frustrated because I don't know where to put things.

Poindexter was no slouch, either. Despite still being ill, he:

Saturday:

- Mopped the kitchen floor
- Cleared his own desk area (was a bigger mess than mine, too)
- Vacuumed the 3rd floor
- Broke down all the delivery boxes from Christmas and taped them for disposal

Sunday:

- Vacuumed the 4th floor
- Cooked aforementioned soup, plus some spaghetti sauce for his wife
- Did 3 loads of laundry (including folding/hanging and putting-away). Don't forget that the laundry room is 2.5 flights down from the office where we spend most of our time. This involved a lot of exercise.

He said the vacuuming took a lot out of him. But by Sunday he was on the mend. :) YAY! Now he has the energy to chase me around the house again instead of reaching weakly for me from a sitting position.

Wednesday, January 21st, 2004

I'm having trouble getting back into writing. I was complaining about how much better my journal used to be prior to 2002, and Poindexter said, "But you were writing EVERY DAY then." So I'm going to try just writing stream-of-consciousness for 10 minutes a day for a couple of weeks and see if I get my journal voice back. No matter how boring it may be. I've considered just not writing, but I want a record of my life, so.

Kit was right when she said I was going to turn into a FREAK like her. Ever since I noticed how easy it was to straighten up the house now that I have a Place For Everything And Everything In Its Place, I've become borderline obsessive about keeping the place neat. I need to find a happy medium. I have an us-only weekend planned with Poindexter and I don't want to wreck it by spending the whole time organizing.

It's looking like Poindexter may get laid off in a month after all. The company didn't get the contract they were hoping for, and the next contract doesn't start until June. Ideally he'd just be unemployed until they hire him back for the other contract, although he'll look for something else. Meanwhile I'm hoping he'll do some of those little house projects we've been wanting to do for ages, including putting new floors and vanities in two bathrooms. The rarely-used half bath is going to be his guinea pig for a lot of these ideas -- to find out if he has the inclination and aptitude, I guess. I also was hoping we could knock out the foyer closet and put a new floor in there.

I'm wearing my new red pants today. They're almost like velour. I love them.

Yesterday I was in Manayunk and stopped in at this upscale petites store called Leehe Fai. The store was closing, and they had 70% off of everything, so I thought I might find something cool. But that was 70% off of $600, so at around $200 everything was still too expensive for me. But still I covet. I've been seeing outfits in magazines that I just love, but are too expensive for me to buy. I finally realized that I'd be just as happy if I just cut out the photo and put it on my wall to look at. I mean, it's not like I can really SEE how I look wearing these things, and they're always these pants outfits, and if there's a model inside the clothes she wears them better than I do because she is a six-foot human clothes hanger and I am a shrimp. So now I have two outfits on my wall that I love and will never wear, and I am happy when I look at them. Most of the fun, none of the cost.

I was completely spoiled being in Kit's house this past weekend, since she keeps the temperature around 76 degrees. It took me two days to get acclimated back to the 70-degree temps in my own house. I could turn the temps to 76 here, but then I'll just suffer everytime I leave the house, so better to get acclimated. The half-hour I spent yesterday walking up and down Main Street in Manayunk at 25 degrees and 25 mph winds must've helped. Ugh.

Today has been awful, hunger-wise. I have essentially been eating nonstop today and I can't make my stomach happy. There is a period of about 5 days -- the PMS days, I suppose they'd be -- where my stomach becomes a black hole. I've been incredibly cranky because of it. I've tried to continue with the healthy eating during this time period (and indeed tried it today, since I had no Bad Food in the house), but it's hopeless. The only thing that will make me feel like I've had enough to eat is a combination of fat and starches. I ate 10 cheese ravioli and I finally feel like a human again. Poindexter suggested that the cold weather is exacerbating the problem, since his mother noticed that cold weather makes her want to do nothing but eat, sleep, drink, and lie around.

You know how sometimes you'll see a sexy actor you like on TV, and he'll do something sexy, and it takes your breath away for a second? I get that feeling on a fairly regular basis when I glance over at Poindexter watching TV.

Good thing, too, 'cause he watches a lotta TV.

OK, time's up. Got a kitchen to clean, too.

Ramble from LJ comments:

I was telling Kit this weekend about how when P and I are apart, I will ask him to tell me every tiny detail about his day, along the lines of "I got up at 6:50, and I shaved and showered, and ..." There are very few people who can tell me that level of insignificant detail and not make my eyes glaze over.

Now that I think about it, I get frustrated with laundry-list journal entries because I am trying to learn detailed things about people by reading them and I don't learn much from entries like that. Once I feel I *do* have a pretty good idea of what a person is like, even a laundry-list entry now has a rich context, and thereby becomes much more interesting.

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