I Speak With the Tongue of a Thousand White-Hot Lies!

(this is also over on the WP blog, just FYI)

So the reason I sort of fell off the blog over Christmas was that, about three days after I went on break [1] , I got sick.  I got nobody else sick, so I figure it was allergies, but still.  Tired, sore throat, gunk galore out my nasal cavities ... blech.  I managed to take the boy to the best-friend-in-law's Peter Pan [2], finish up all the Christmas shopping, and survive the holidays [3] ... but I was tired and living on Mucinex and Alka-Seltzer sinus.

I started feeling better the Saturday before I had to go back to work, though that gave me about four days.

Now, I had heard about Unfuck Your Habitat before, but I'd never really checked it out.  But earlier in the week, a friend had posted one of those "Things To Make Your Life Easier" memes on Facebook--you know, use nail polish on your keys so you know which is which, cord labels made out a bread ties--and once again, I saw vertical folding.  My dresser was a freaking disaster, I'd just gotten a bunch of new t-shirts and funky socks for Christmas, it was not looking promising ... so I'd thought, why not? ( There be photos below! )

I like the whole 'system,' thus far.  I dig the swearing--it's like cleaning a la Quentin Tarantino!--and the snarkiness of the blog, and I like feeling that it's something I can maybe maintain ('resetting' the house sounds so much more do-able than 'cleaning' every damn day, and I think it's making it easier on the husband, too).  I also like the 20/10s.  Because I sometimes feel overwhelmed and sort of defeated before I begin (like, when I look at the filing? Or the after-Xmas closet?), but this gives me a structure.

In the end, I'm hoping once the major unfucking is done, the resets will not take up a whole lot of time.  And when, inevitably in a house with an elementary-school-age child and a parent who works in a library, we all go down with the plague again and the house devolves into chaos and despair, I'll have the 20/10s and the app and the blog to fall back on.

We shall see how well it works.  So far so good.

Oh, and yes, I am totally doing paperless billing now.

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[1] College library day job; I get Winter Break.

[2] David costumed it--steampunk Peter Pan!  Hook and the pirates basically stole the show, though Peter and Tiger Lily were excellent as well.  The boy loved it; it was a very late night for him, and he was desperately trying to stay awake through intermission, but he refused to fall asleep until he found out how it ended.

[3]  I hate the holidays.  I just do.  I spent a lot of my life trying to deny it, and I always ended up feeling like utter hell once they were over.  When I finally admitted it (in a hysterical monologue in the car to my husband about eleven years ago) and gave up on trying to enjoy them ... I started actually enjoying them a lot more.  I don't try to Scrooge on anyone else's enjoyment of them; I will not Grinch your holiday party.  I just want to peacefully hate getting out the decorations and ignore most of the specials on TV while debating whether a hockey stick or a cattle prod might be more effective in the damn store two days before Christmas.

All right, Christmas decorations are down. The rest of the day:

1. Put living room back together

2. Install and fill pet net

3. Put Z. room back together

4. Clean kitchen up

5. Work prep for tomorrow

6. Laundry throughout the day

But first, a soda and a round of Echo Bazaar.

Lots to do this morning, and today:

Xmas shopping
find the boyo a pair of sneakers that fit
music class
buy milk
get an anniversary card (yes, dealio, that's a reminder
make stroganoff
clean the kitchen
clean the Zweeble's lair
fold laundry
get ready and go to the Evil Empire's Christmas party

I am not entirely sure I will get all of this done. Plus, I woke up this morning with a sore throat. It could be allergies triggered by the cold front that's apparently on its way, or it could be the start of a cold. I'm leaning toward allergies right now, but I'm going to start the Airborne, just in case.

Oh, and I made myself a little iGoogle homepage last night, and they have comics themes! And by that, I mean actual comic book comics--one of which is Owly! The Zweeb loves Owly, and so do I, so my current hompage theme is Owly. Rock!

Scott is back at work today, so the wild and wacky rollercoaster that has been life for just shy of a month is now rolling back to the loading platform.

Now I have to clean the kitchen, which slid quickly toward pit-hood while Scott was on vacation, finish our mountain of laundry, and get caught up on things like buying birthday presents and e-mail.

This morning the Zweeble said, very softly (and trying to work out the big word), "I think Daddy is the wonderfulest man in the whole world. And you are the wonderfulest lady, Mommy." Of course, he was also calling us Scott and Laura for most of the morning, so the sweetness is mitigated. :)

Off to the pit. Wish me luck. If you don't hear from me in two days, just burn the place and sow the ground with salt.

If I ever schedule a dental appointment, a school meeting, a doctor's appointment, and a dermatologist appointment all in one week, before the Zweeble is in school, again ... just don't let me. I'm only on the third one and I'm ready to kill myself.

The dermatologist is Saturday, though, so that ought to be a little easier.

Ugh. Okay. Here I go. Once more unto the breach. Over the top, boys, nobody lives forever!

The entire to-do list is done!!!

Lemme tell ya, there is only one way I can go from my house somewhere else that does not involve driving through road work, and sadly I don't need to get to 41 that often. Supermarket? Road work. Other supermarket? Insane road work. Gym? Insane but not related roadwork. Park? Minor road work, but road work nonetheless. Library? Two stretches of road work, both insane.

And I'm one of those people who looks at gas prices and gets the distinct feeling that the end times are nigh, so as I picked my way through my third or fourth stretch of road work and passed a gas station, I found myself picturing prices so high the state wouldn't even be able to afford gas anymore, and all of those trucks and cranes and front-end loaders and whatever those road-smoother trucks are called abandoned and rusting along the half-unfinished roads. Of course, by then I wouldn't be driving through there, myself.

In happier news, my bike is in pretty good shape for not having been ridden for ... two years? It needs some grease, a good washing, and the tires had to be inflated, but nothing too scary. The Zweeble seemed intrigued.

I feel better. Thank god.