Tracking time

I took this past Friday off on a vacation day. My kids didn't have school, and my plan was to spend the day with them, and since Kev is on afternoons, with him also for most of the day. However... Joyce made plans to meet friends in town for lunch and shopping, and Sammy made plans to meet a bunch of friends at the movies, go home with one then to the basketball game... So I ended up with a large chunk of time to myself. That's nice, too. But not the plan, y'know... So I decided to get at least one thing crossed off my perennial "to do list" and to clean out my bathroom cabinets and drawers. I should have taken a before and after shot... I'm not sure how long it's been since I've done that little bit of mission organization, but I'm guessing it's been quite a while. I took a large garbage bag of stuff out of there that was so heavy I had trouble carrying it out to the garage. It was a good day to do that little task, because I was in a "throw it out" mood. Those moods don't come upon me very often... I'm a dedicated pack rat and procrastinator. So when I finished in my bathroom, I moved on to the half bath. Another large garbage bag full. I know it's all in my head, but my house feels so much lighter.

More than a decade ago now, I got into going to those Partylite candle parties. Some of you know how that goes, I'm sure... one friend has a party, then another friend signs up to have one, then another... and so on. I collected quite a bit of candle shit stuff. Longaberger baskets, too. And Pampered Chef. Anyway, I moved quite a bit of the Partylite stuff downstairs in our basement into a cupboard a few years back, where it's been collecting dust ever since. I had a bunch of that stuff, though,that somehow ended up being stored on the top shelf in the half bath cabinet, with some overflowing to the shelf under that. When I began sorting through that cabinet, the top shelf collapsed onto the second shelf and the sound of tinkling and clanging glass resonated in that small room with a surprising volume. Now even though I've grown tired of most of that stuff, and it's been sitting up on that top shelf doing nothing but gathering dust for a few years, I still have a pretty good memory of how much cash I wasted spent on it all. My ever-dependable hubby heard my hollers for help (I was trying to hold the shelf up), and came to my rescue. It took about 30 minutes to sort through the mess, but nothing was broken. Amazing. I packed up 2 large boxes and down to the basement it goes. OK, I admit it, there's still quite a bit remaining on the top shelf. Much less weighty than before, however. Kev approved, while commenting of his surprise the shelf didn't break in half with the weight long before now. And, of course, what in the hell was I thinking shoving all that up there. I was thinking out of sight, out of mind, naturally.

It felt pretty good getting that done. How to measure the passing years? By the number of garbage bags...

I also found a pair of tweezers that I've been searching for going on at least 5 years now. Women will understand better than most men my happiness at that find. A good pair of tweezers is not only expensive (over $20) but also a very valued item. So happy to see my little red tweezers again. My eyebrows look so nice today!

And since Sammy had a party yesterday, the house looks pretty nice, too. So much cleaning! Sammy had about 15 friends over just to have pizza and hang out in the basement, playing Wii, ping pong and air hockey. Kev asked me why in the world I agreed to that, and I said to get the house cleaned. My madness usually has a method.

post postscript: I also found this earring... and it's quite heavy for it's size, by the feel of it, I think it's no cheapo... so if it's yours, let me know.