Bound and Determined

Binders are toys for the obsessive compulsive.

Since I started my postcard obsession a year ago, I’ve been keeping scans of all the cards (well over 100 now!) in a binder, which was getting full. So off I went to Office Depot for a new binder. Thirty dollars later, a couple of new binders and some sleeve protectors in hand, I discovered the domino effect of updating.

Let’s see, the tatty old binder with my knitting patterns…. The manila envelope with my most-used recipes…. A huge red binder with all my poems. Then there was one with notes from a college drawing classes in purple ditto! (If you’re under 50 you have no idea how teachers made copies before Xerox made it easy. Correctly termed “spirit duplicators,” they used a waxy purple mat and alcohol, and the smell of fresh copies gave you a tiny high.)

About half a day after that trip down memory lane, here’s how it all turned out. 

Pretty new Jillybeans binder, plus poems and various writing notebooks and books

Cards received, no longer in a binder but held with a ring, but I need to find a nice place to hang them.

Shiny new polka dots for a new volunteer job I’m starting soon, and the ancient college “ditto” folder for knitting patterns (the old one was duct-taped)

The coup de grâce: since so many recipes are tiny clippings, labels and cards, I thought it would be nice to use the sheet protectors with little slots for postcards so I could find the small items easily and keep them neater. Clever, right? When I was finished, I discovered the binder was just a bit too wide and/or tall to fit into my cookbook cabinet. So it sits all by itself on top.

Neat little slots for the recipe scraps, which will someday be scanned, I swear!

The door won’t close

Will I remember to look up there when I’m in a hurry to find a favorite recipe?

Leftovers, complete with the duct-taped folder and lots of dividers and sheet protectors for my next little OCD attack.

I have to wonder: if I’m really OCD, wouldn’t I have all my recipes scanned and organized by now? Yeah, that’ll happen, someday–after I finish three knitting and two needlework projects, publish my next book of poems, do 100 more postcards, refinish my desk and paint the quilt rack in our room to match the rest of the furniture. At least I have a list.

School’s In

All summer I have been compiling a list of things I wanted to do when school started and the grandchild schedule eased up.

I’m finishing up tasks that have dragged on for some time, one of which was scanning old photo albums. The photos are fantastic–many were taken when my dad was in the Royal Air Force in Karachi (then India) from 1928–but the scanning was tedious, and I still have to organize the scanned images to share with family.

Dad’s albums, dating back to the 1920s

Sample page, with Dad’s inscription in white ink

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The summer was fun with the kids, going to the beach and spending time at our condo pool. But having a kid (or two) every other week meant I spent the other week recovering. I’ll have Chloe some weekends, and I have to get used to the idea of having this week free, next week free…

… to fill up with appointments, to start with. Dentist, gynecologist, eye and so on. Lunches with neglected friends.

We closed out a bank safe deposit box, which contained only our wills, so we’re going to update the wills and powers of attorney, financial records etc. and provide to my older daughter. It’s so much easier to do it now, when we don’t actually need it. I’m also going to take pictures throughout the house for an inventory of our worldly goods.

Chloe hasn’t played in the sand area in the courtyard for many months, so when we get some cooler mornings I’m going to clean it up (again).

Saggy sand table

Too hot to sit out here anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s way past time for a condo newsletter. There is lots of news and many new neighbors.

I’ve created a template for Christmas cards. This year I’m going to do a small piece of original art on each one, similar to my Jillybeans postcards.

I have several craft, knitting, sewing and other projects hanging.

An infinity scarf, a gift

I want to refinish my old desk, which I had as a child. It’s too precious to neglect, and Chloe has put permanent marker and wite-out marks on it.

My beautiful old desk.

I can work on poems, journals and book ideas(and read books) any time.

There is always postcard art, which feeds my soul. That’s my default, every day.

Workouts. Errands. Household chores.

A neighbor recently described me as “driven.” I know I am incredibly blessed. Soon after we moved into the condo and I was feeling overwhelmed, I told an elderly friend I had too much to do. She said, “Be glad you have too much to do.” She has since passed on. I am glad I have too much to do.

 

Ezra, Ernest and a Valentine’s Do-Over

Ernest Hemingway lost a valise containing valuable original manuscripts–or so the story (maybe apocryphal) goes. Ezra Pound assured him the stories were in his head and the rewrites would make them better.

This makes me feel better any time I lose something that requires a do-over.

We were invited to a friend’s birthday party December 30. I wanted to give C. a knitted hat, but with too little notice, holiday projects, and travel, I didn’t have enough time. By mid-January, around the time we finished the New Year’s cleaning purge, hat and scarf were ready.

When we cleaned the garage we packed Gary’s car for a junk drive. On the Saturday he was taking the load, he planned to go to a rehearsal for a play C. is in, so I put the gift bag in his car to give to her. You can probably see where this is going.

Next day I saw C. and asked if Gary had given her the bag. Her blank look made my heart sink. I told her it was probably in Gary’s car, but a search confirmed my fears–it had gone to the junk drive. I told C. “Some day we’ll laugh about this, but right now I may cry.” I took the blame, telling my husband I should have called his attention to the bag and reminded him to hold onto it.

Coincidentally, C. knew the people running the drive and she contacted them to see if had turned up, emailing me several pictures of really pretty hats and scarves that were not the ones I made, which makes you wonder how many hand-knit items end up in junk drives.

Tonight we are going to the Valentine’s performance of “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks” (for which I designed the post card and poster)

I’ll finally give the replacement gift to C. I like to think I made them better this time. The first scarf was a little too wide and not long enough.

Ezra would approve

 

 

 

 

 

We have had the coldest winter I remember in the 30+ years I’ve lived in Austin. Today’s forecast high is 83 degrees F. As I told C., just in time for warm weather. Maybe we’ll have another cold snap, and there’s always next year.

 

 

 

New Year, New Look: What I did in January

Into its third year, my blog is finally looking the way I want it to! I’m really excited about the new theme and the header image. (The theme is “Skeptical,” and the photo is one I took of Edinburgh harbor from the Royal Yacht Britannia.)

January is one of my favorite months. I love the clean slate after the holiday clutter. This year I vowed to do a once-every-five-years de-cluttering and cleaning, including reorganizing the kitchen cupboards, cleaning closets and bathrooms cabinets, tidying up my studio, finishing with a grand sweep of the garage last Wednesday. It was fun to visit with neighbors who stopped by, asking us to do theirs next. We put out a full trash can and two full recycling containers; my husband took a huge carload to a junk drive and I took some items to hazardous waste disposal. (Sadly, a birthday gift of a hand-knit hat and scarf accidentally went to the junk drive, but I told the intended recipient we’d laugh about it someday. In the meantime I’m knitting new ones for her.)

I also emptied, dusted and reorganized bookshelves, intending to give some books away. I eliminated only one, but I did establish a whole shelf of books, about 40, I haven’t read, ranging from great classics (War and Peace) to fluff (Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood), and lots in between, including several dark and nihilistic books from a college philosophy class (Doctor Faustus, The Sleepwalkers). It’s not likely I’ll read them all but I know where to go when I’m looking for the next book to read (in addition to the pile next to my chair that includes Bill Bryson, Barbara Kingsolver and Abraham Verghese).

One thing I learned is we have too much stuff. Even though we’re pretty thrifty, it’s amazing how much we accumulate and then get rid of. 

I also learned that we should never buy an over-the-counter drug or toiletry item without first checking to see if we already have it. I found nine bottles of eye drops, of which eight were expired. We have stim-u-dents, nasal strips, dental floss and hair and foot products out the wazoo. And why does a couple who never plays cards have six decks, including Elvis, Santa-shaped, and round? I even weeded out the toy bins so Chloe can find things without digging through dead markers and ratty stuffed animals.

One thing that helps me get-‘er done is my new to-do list system. I have two clipboards, one for everyday tasks and one for creative ideas for writing or art projects. On each is a stack of notebook paper, with a week’s list on top. Each day gets its own items, and anything else I want to get done that week goes on the right. It gets messy and scribbled and marked out, and then it’s discarded (although I probably should keep them as some sort of weird historical record). Even when I have several projects going at once it helps me stay on track with priorities, and also pick up the little items that might be forgotten. Of all the organizing systems I’ve tried through the years this has been the most successful for me.

When I did the kitchen re-org, I decided to hang the stemware to free up shelf space. Although he griped throughout the process, my husband now takes credit for how nice it looks. It’s so pretty it’s like decorating the kitchen with bubbles.

Hanging stemware, installed by proud handyman Gary Payne

Update on New Year’s Eve: We told Chloe she could stay up to watch the ball drop in Times Square, which is 11 our time, but she wanted to stick it out till midnight. She snuggled in bed with her new tablet and gave me time updates every five minutes. We turned everything off at 12:05 and went to sleep, but maybe she’ll remember New Year’s 2014 as I remember 1954.