honey *baby* do list
thought it would be short
but once I sat down to write it, I realized it needed highlighting of the most important/firsts to-dos so they wouldn’t get lost in the shuffle. The list is now under a magnet on the kitchen blackboard.
This place is a mess. Wait, no, a dump. Other people claim our house is so nice, but it is never quite right to me — almost never. On most days, I am sorry to say, it is a bit in shambles because blah-blah-blah. Should count how many posts have that in them. Perhaps not. Moving on. So, trying to have one or two goals a day, versus 8 or 10 or 12 when I mean to have 5, I chose my office/studio and the other studio.
Not fancy, really; we have names for rooms (and some closets) to “improve communication.” Will leave it at that. Anywho, I then added the garden — should do something out there though I don’t want to. I mostly feel like someone’s pulling me towards a precipice (I think I said that recently … yes, just checked, although not that recently: the camo phase). Intense, I know. But there you go. I go out and look at the flowers and veg, photograph them, and snip them off, which is incredible I can still do in November.
ANYWHO to the degree²
Nothing I chose for today is on that list (is not my list =), it is my space, and right now, looking at it, which I mostly avoid, it’s like an obstacle course. Will not expand upon that. So, sunny and warm for November irrelevant, I choose to clean. There, that sounds better than clean, no?
So it’s Pomodoro® time! I love trying to beat the clock. It took a bit of perseverance to start, as immediately, as I stood up, I thought why not write instead, for just a bit? But I knew better. It is seldom just a bit.
I RECORDED THE FOLLOWING WHILE GOING THROUGH THE PAINS
THERE’S MORE, BUT I’LL SPARE YOU
3 minutes and 37 seconds left on the second Pomodoro, which would have brought me to about 3/4 of the way on the first part of the job (my space, not “the other”), my husband asked if I would help him outside. To do the leaves. Said Ok.
I had no idea he meant the sea of leaves completely covering the driveway and front yard. “Only the driveway and this side,” he said. =| He actually wanted to fill up trash bins (we have a ton) and empty them in the woods behind our house. WHAAAAT? The wind will blow them back! “That’s what I’ve done since I’ve lived here.” I guess because he wanted my help, we bagged. But, I kid you not, I think he was raking the neighbor’s leaves into our yard …
45 minutes into this, I reiterated in a more persuasive, I thought, way: we have a handy-dandy riding lawn mower in the shed with a cup holder. Why don’t you get a beer — no, wait! I’ll get you the beer, and you ride around and crush the leaves and that you can put in the woods. “I don’t know how I survived without you for 33 years.” HA HA HA! To which I nicely responded: I don’t have to be here, I could go back in the house and finish what I was doing. End of peanut gallery.
I kept wishing some mammoth wind would sweep the leaves onto any of our neighbors’ yards, down the street, up to the sky, to the next town, into Zimbabwe. Somewhere. Seriously. And it did while we filled the last bag, and I thought: what if the wind flips over the bucket?
i should head this post: it flipping blows*
With errands done and groceries put away after the whirlwind =) of midday, I finally got to my space and decluttered to the Nth degree, the “other space” left in the throes. This was Saturday. Today I did so much work in the front yard (which, by the way, is covered in leaves)! Planted flowers and plants that have been waiting for who-knows-how-long, but at last they’re in. Next spring and summer will be seasons of wonder, as I will not know some of what I planted since quite a few plants lost their tags.
*Have a super-funny story, but it is not my story … will ask if Ok to post about it. Names excluded. Blowing Leaves is a thing among a group of friends.
