Here's why: Mum left for a trip to the sunny south, and my brother and I decided to do something she'd been talking about for ages - get the carpets cleaned. (And, even though I'm writing about it on the Internet, it's actually a secret, so don't tell her. I'm banking on her not checking my blog from her vacation. However, you never know, so - hi Mom!) Despite the fact that we've put it off for years, it turned out to be fairly easy - just call the cleaners, set up a date, then move nearly everything so they can get at the carpet. It's the moving stuff BACK that's proving to be a problem.
Well, not a problem, really. I mean, we COULD have just moved it all back to the way it was, and been done with it. But, when 50% of your living and dining rooms are piled up in other rooms, and you can see the floor and the amount of space in the rooms, and you can easily move the furniture, then you can see how things COULD be. You can dream and think about how you might like to change things. I like to change my bedroom around - although not as much as a certain friend of mine, ahem JANICE - and the main, open-plan floor of the house hadn't been changed around since we moved in, pretty much. So we thought, what the hell?
But it turns out that the process of moving things around means going through the piles of papers, and books, and whatever else we've collected over the years (elastics, paper clips, matches, pens that do and do not work, random broken things, et cetera), and culling. And that - takes time. And it ends up getting done in between the other things of life, like work, and seeing friends, and exercising, so that now, a week later, there are still big boxes full of stuff that need going through, piles of things covering the kitchen table, furniture halfway to where it might end up, but no longer in its old spot. It feels like we're moving in to our house, all over again. Which in a way is fun, and exciting, the same way a move is, but in another way is frustrating - "I'm tired of reaching for the (insert whatever here) and not having it be there, or walking upstairs in the middle of the night, thinking the furniture is in its old positions, and bumping into things! I just want a magic wand to wave, so it will all be done!Bibbity bobbity boo, et cetera..."
Poor me, I know. Cry me a river. These things really aren't that big of a deal, and I know that. But still - it can get irritating to have one's "nest" all in disarray.
The camera saga continues... So I called the camera store yesterday, thinking, "Oh, silly me, why am I even doing this? Surely the part is on order and it's just taking a long time. Still, I want to check up on it, see what's going on. It's been a whole month, after all." So the person on the other end of the phone tells me that she thinks the order never even went through, and we'll have to order it again. And in order for us to do that, I should probably bring my camera in again so they can have a look and make sure what part they do have to order. Gah! This is a small store, too, run by local people. I don't want there to be problems. I want to be able to say, "I shop small and local, and it's awesome!"
In other news... I read a post by Kate Harding the other day, entitled "On Productivity and Absorption," and it struck a chord with me. I'm not as technology-based as she is, but I do use it, and I am aware of how the "everyone tweeting and talking and posting all the time" phenomenon in our culture has exhausted me. It's a long-ish piece and I wouldn't blame you for not reading it, but I do recommend it.
A corker of a time... I've been wanting to try some new wines and play around with pairing wines and foods. I started out with a very indulgent home-made macaroni and cheese, and asked the people at the local NSLC what they would pair with it. The match was a success, and so when I went over to another friend's for pizza, I asked the NSLC people for tips again. This picture is from my evening with two good friends, trying out three different wines.
(The picture was taken on my friend's camera, which I nearly went home with. No, not really - but I tell you - being able to take pictures again was a rush! O - M - G I miss it so.)
If you click on the picture you can see it larger, and you can see my handwriting on the envelope, with the names of the wines and what kind of glass we decided to serve it in, so we'd remember which was which. (Being young people without heaps of disposable income, we didn't have proper wine glasses. Oh, well.)
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