Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Such a Strange (but Productive) Day

I really thought today was going to be a great day.  I mean, in all my life in all the places I have lived, the garbage truck comes so early in the morning that wakes me up.   And it's no different here:  every Wednesday that stinkin' truck comes through close to 7, waking up WHM and starting our day a little rougher than we'd like.  (Where do you have to live for them to come in the afternoons?  I want to move there.  Really.)

Except today.

Today, the garbage truck didn't come through until nearly 2pm!  It was glorious!

But seriously, when that truck didn't wake us up (and most people might have been upset at losing their alarm, I realize), surely there were angels singing somewhere, and today should have been great ... but it completely and totally wasn't, and I spent most of the day on the verge of tears for no discernible reason.  (Ahem.  Before you ask, no, I am not pregnant.)

So, I'm writing this to go through my day to try to convince myself that despite the rain and dreariness, today really was a good day.

First, I took the kids to school.  Last night I was a rock star and pre-made their lunches (well, minus CAM's sandwich, because no one deserves a soggy sandwich!), so this morning all I had to do was finish the details and drinks.  Awesome!  Gold star, right?

I came straight home and sat down at my desk, in total quiet, to work on the STACK of receipts I have with little "tell us what you think" contests printed on the bottom.  I got through a few, and then FedEx came.  I was waiting for FedEx, because I needed to sign for a package for Mick.  Anyway, she (FedEx, not Mick, that would be weird) came nice and early, and I was able to do some work in the basement -- and I am happy to say I officially filed EVERYTHING that needed to be filed!  I am insanely organized, but I am just as guilty as anyone else of having that stupid pile of "stuff to deal with," and although I have files for everything, I had let the "to be filed" pile get a little (and by "a little," I mean, "completely") out of control.  Well, by my standards, anyway.  I didn't want to be in the basement (where my AWESOME file cabinet is, and yes, I mean it with all my heart when I say how awesome my file cabinet is, because I love it.  I saved for it.  It was a major, well-considered purchase.  I make Monica Geller look like an amateur.  Remember the episode where she broke out her wedding ideas binder and it was cross-referenced and indexed and she'd been building it since she was a little girl?  Yep.  Had one.  MG, she's got nothing on me.) when FedEx came, so once she left I ran down there to file like a madwoman.

Do you have one of these?



I don't even know what it's called!  But when I was in college, I worked in the Records office and we had one of these.  In any case, although I don't know its name, it makes filing super fast and super easy.  Yes, you do touch every paper twice (once to sort and once to actually file), but it allows you to sort, while, say, you're watching The Price is Right, and then the actual filing in, say, a dark, chilly, basement, is much faster than it would have been without the sorter, and you don't freeze in that basement (or miss too much of The Price is Right).

Okay, so I checked filing off the household list (remember the one taped inside the basement door?)!!!  Wahoo!  I also decided that henceforth, Mondays shall be my filing day.  However much stuff I accumulate over the course of the week, every Monday I will take 15 minutes and put it all away.

But back to my day.  When I finished that, I ran up to the school and dropped off coats for the kids -- yes, I sent them to school without coats today because the Doppler 25Million or whatever it's called promised we'd be in the upper 60s.  It lied.  They lied.  The kids had a pretty enough day to play outside, but it was chilly.  So I ran coats up to them, and then ran to the post office to ... drum roll ... finally mail out our Christmas Thank-You notes!  CAM and I sat down and finished them all last night, and that's another huge thing off our list.  Phew.

So, then I came home, and in my email was a message from one of my alumni associations about a job I thought would be a nice fit, so I dashed off an application.  I say dashed off, but those things are never that fast, and it took about 45 minutes.

I also called the instructor for the knitting and crocheting classes I had to miss back in December -- I finally called her, that is -- and re-scheduled one of my sessions for next week.  This might get tricky, because we've crossed calendar years, but I mean, really.  My class was early December and we missed it (long story and I won't throw Mick under the bus here, but I forgot to put it on his Google calendar so he made plans that meant I had no one to watch the kids, so I had to skip the class... Just sayin', not his fault, but clearly not MINE now, c'mon...) I don't think it's unreasonable to have to make it up early in the New Year.  Well, that little phone call is another huge thing off my to-do list.

I also managed to tutor two hours, keep the kitchen and living room clean, bring in the trash cans, and (I know, I'm stretching it if I list that, huh?!) and go to Costco for milk.  Yes, we ran out of milk. HOW on earth that happened, I don't know!

AND I started working on a little project I've started on, and will post photos of my progress soon.  I had to test my glue method, so I didn't get too far.  Tomorrow we'll see how it all worked and if I can finish it, I'll post the whole thing in a day or two.

All told, it was a productive day and I crossed three major things off my list, and got started on a fourth. But it's rainy and dreary and I just have the blahs, and I hate that!  I'm feeling a little better just having typed all this out, and I also cooked a decent dinner and made my grocery list for the PW recipes I've got coming next week.

Perhaps Wednesday night TV will cheer me up.  Anyway, forget about my so-so day -- I hope everyone else is having a great day!

--Jen



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