This week’s sidequests included decluttering my work space, binge watching a favorite show, and taking a picture of something in my house from a new perspective.
Decluttering the work space aligned perfectly with a project I already had going where I was rearranging furniture in the rooms and reorganizing what goes into each closet space. The office was the last area of the house that I had to get to, where I had piled some of the remaining stuff to sort. (Technically I also need to organize the shelf in the garage, but eh… we won’t count that)
So I finally sat down and got most of the clutter spaced out. In this case, I did not think to take before or after pics, but it is much nicer. Except for the bookshelves. And the closet in the office. I mean, it’s close enough. The work areas are decluttered.
For the binge watching, I decided to start How I Met Your Mother all over again. I’m not sure that I would call it my favorite show of all time, but it is definitely up there, and one that I’ve re-watched a few separate times. So watching it again is no problem. I’m only halfway through the first season, so there’s quite a bit more to go.
Taking a picture of something in the house was a bit odd, because I’m not sure how many more perspectives I could do of random objects. I did notice something technically outside of the house, but that I thought would be nice to capture. I’ve been using a particular seed mix the past few years, and there’s a flower that grows from it that never seemed to open.
The other night I stepped out to throw something in the trash, and discovered that it blooms at night. Since I typically don’t take pictures of flowers at night, that seemed like a nice change, and a way to show the full beauty of the flower. Also, from what I’ve been able to research, it might be a form of tobacco?
The sidequests for this week included doing a power pose for 1 minute, watching my favorite movie of all time, and writing a one page letter to myself for 1 year from now.
Power pose was simple – set a song that was a little over a minute and maintained the stand up straight chin lifted posture the card recommends. Knocked that out early on.
The second was also fairly easy. My favorite movie of all time is The Thing. I own it on DVD, but in this day of too-lazy-to-pop-the-disc-in, I finally decided to just purcahse it streaming since the alternative is that I rent it every other year to watch. The effects are great for the time, the writing is excellent and the story is well put together. Some of it gets slow, but it builds the paranoia of the situation perfectly. I’ve also watched the old version before, the newer prequel, and have read the short story it is adapted from. Although I haven’t done any of those for awhile, so perhaps I should revisit them this next week as well?
The last one wasn’t difficult, but there were so many things that happened this past week that I was waiting on answers to that I waited last minute to write the letter. It’s kind of more interesting that way, I guess – to not know how certain things will turn out while writing, and seeing your thoughts just before any confirmations. I sealed the letter in an envelope, dated it, and stuck it at the back of my weekly planner to place at the appropriate date when I fill in my new planner for next year.
The sidequests for this week included going for a walk around the neighborhood, selling or donating something I don’t use anymore, and reading a chapter form a new book.
The book one was a little hard in interpreting – does the book only need to be new to me? Or new as in just recently published? But since I’ve still got my BOTM subscription, I decided to read my book from the previous month, so that would make it both new to me and a book published in April of this year. I started reading The Husbands by Holly Gramazio, and finished reading it by Wednesday night. I enjoyed it a lot, but we’ll see what I still remember when I do my reading write up at the beginning of next year.
I finally decided to put my treadmill on facebook’s marketplace. Mostly I had been putting it off because I dislike interacting with people, but I haven’t used the treadmill in over a year and I don’t keep myself on it for any significant amount of time when I do use it. I have better luck just going to a gym. (although admittedly, I haven’t done that in a long while either)
It was only up for a few days, with a couple of people expressing interest, but mostly they just kept asking me to bring the price down. Finally found a person that seemed interested in looking at it in person and said that he didn’t intend to ask for me to reduce the price, but when I went to eat with my parents for Sunday, they offered to buy it instead. I apologized to the guy, collected the money from my parents, and then helped Dad get it into and out of his truck and situated at their house. Then I showed them how to use it. My Dad kept saying he felt more comfortable having it because Mom likes to go for walks, which made him worry. Lots of people in our town own dogs that they don’t keep very well contained, so it’s not unusual to see some happy-go-lucky fucker waltzing around enjoying some freedom. Most times they’re friendly, and it’s not like dog attacks are common place. But I have seen a few while living here, and Dad has had to fend off an aggressive dog on his walks before, hence his apprehension.
Don’t know if it will get much more use, but Mom does like to walk.
I also did sort through a few drawers and come up with some more clothes to donate, though I haven’t taken them to Goodwill yet.
And then the last one – for for a walk around the neighborhood. Rather than going around the neighborhood, I decided to walk down to a neighborhood feature I never realized was there before. On my drive to work, there is a park that is tucked in behind some houses. I only started using this route to drive to work once I moved into my current home, so I was unaware that the park existed. It’s usually abandoned, though still semi-maintained with the grass being mown regularly. It’s actually very expansive too – when I started walking along its length, I realized that it actually extended all the way back up towards my house. It kind of awkwardly looks into a lot of people’s backyards, and the entrances to the park are very narrow. There are a lot of places were water obviously stands after it rains.
And despite the regular grass cutting, the actual equipment isn’t maintained. The benches rusting, and the playground equipment looked like it was rusting as well, even though I think it had been plastic at one point. The swings were pretty good though. A bit further back was a tennis court, but the metal fencing on one end was completely absent, and there was no net. Even further back was some more tall metal fencing, but I couldn’t tell the purpose – maybe at one point it had been part of a baseball field? Closer to the ditch, set under some trees was some concrete. I think maybe a picnic bench may have sat there before, but now it was just a random patch of concrete in the shade. I didn’t see anyone else, just a rabbit and dogs in their back yards.
I suppose there would almost be some temptation to blame the condition on kids not wanting to go outside anymore, but in this case I think it was purely poor positioning. The park is tucked so awkwardly behind people’s houses that you feel a little like you’re out of place or invading privacy. I’ve lived near this neighborhood since I was a kid and didn’t even know the park was back there. Despite the size of the grounds, there’s zero parking available. And there’s plenty of other play options in our neighborhood, which has two elementary schools. So it just sits back, out of sight, out of mind.
The week was fairly quiet otherwise – due to work scheduling, it ended up being a 6 day work week, and I spent the day off cleaning. I did get a response from my penpal and have already mailed a reply.
This week’s challenges were to take 10 deep, mindful breaths, color for 10 minutes, and to take a cold shower.
The deep mindful breaths were easily done. Coloring for 10 minutes extended into coloring while listening to music for much longer. I have two coloring books that I have received as birthday gifts, and one of them is the Swearing Cats Coloring Book. I flipped through it to find a page I wanted to color and came across this one with one of my favorite sayings:
I even have a bracelet with that saying on it. I don’t color a lot, so the books are mostly not filled in. I’m also really awful at choosing colors for things. But it was a fun way to waste time and daydream while listening to music and still staying occupied with something.
I took a cold shower for all of a minute before I couldn’t stand it. I even waited for a day that I had mowed the lawn so that I’d be a bit overheated after, but the weather isn’t quite hot enough yet. I’ll take the minute, I suppose. I can almost guarantee that later in the year I will willingly take a cold shower – when I’ve mowed the lawn in July in 100 degree weather. Of course, arguably, the water in the pipes when it’s that hot out isn’t very cold either.
On an unrelated note, I also went to the Castle of Muskogee this weekend. It’s a far drive for me, but I was curious what it was like. They have a Renaissance Faire that runs pretty much every weekend of May every year. When you enter, it’s a little village of shops and storefronts, with a few staging areas for performances and special events, a playground area for children, as well as some animal attractions (rides, petting zoo, peacocks). I watched a few of the shows and spent too much money, but it was fun at least.
And as a penpal update, I have been awful in not responding to one yet. But I did respond to the other, and used it as an excuse to play with some of my wax seals.
On top of the dragon seal, I also have a phoenix, a yin/yang, and a Hogwarts houses seal.
My sidequests for this week included doing a puzzle, warming up a blanket in the dryer and getting cozy, and evading responsibilities to have a self care day. I will admit to a little shuffling because the weather was quite rainy and cool this weekend, and I originally pulled a cold shower challenge. I didn’t shuffle it too far back though – it’ll be next week. So spoiler alert? I guess?
The warm blanket was easy enough. I have a smaller throw blanket I recently bought and have been keeping on my bed, and I decided to go ahead and wash it. Then as soon as it was out of the dryer, I curled up in it. Of course, the warmth got zapped out pretty quickly, but it was nice and relaxing while it lasted.
The evading responsibilties card wasn’t too bad either – I had asked for this entire weekend off owing to nerdiness (Star Wars day, have to have your nerd holidays off). This week was a little bit of a bummer, owing to a variety of reasons. I had found a baby bird outside and was keeping an eye on it (I left it outside so the parents could watch it) but it still died. Also I had originally planned to drive to a Ren Faire, but the weather got very rainy and overcast, and I didn’t want to spend the day soggy. The weather also messed with my lawncare plans, and Dinnerly’s delivery messed up and didn’t arrive. On top of a couple of other more personal things, spending an entire day moping and indulging in escapism via books seemed in order.
So on Star Wars day, I had a good sleep in, spent most of the day curled up in bed or on the couch reading, and ordered out instead of cooking. It was relaxing, and I do feel recuperated and ready to tackle the next week thanks to it.
The last one was to do a puzzle. I ordered one of the Unidragon wooden puzzles, since they have really fun designs and the pieces are made of wood and have different shapes than a typical puzzle. I’m not really a puzzle person – they actually frustrate me to some degree. I kind of lack the patience to work on them. But I persisted, and managed to finish it! This doesn’t happen a lot, so I’m kind of proud of myself.
I belatedly also ordered an adhesive mat that they make specifically for their puzzles so that they can be hung. That should come in a few days. The adhesive portion can get cut down to size, and from the description of it, there is enough material to fit a few of their puzzles, so if I have a lot left over I might order one more. Because frustration is fun? Or because the designs are really neat? Hmm.
mehryment 