It is harder to schleppe in winter

I have enough trouble getting my many bags from here to there without the addition of a COAT! I find that everything slides off of my shoulders when wearing a coat. I should just break down and clean up my clutter enough that someone can get into my house to install the wifi. I have been informed that WIFI is not the same thing as WIRELESS.

Starting a relationship with my new phone. It is probably smarter than I am, but I foresee many happy hours of getting to know it. Missing my KEYBOARD with my old LG phone. I can't deal with "pictures" of keys. My nephew and my brother-in-law tried to straighten me out on some procedures with the Samsung Galaxy S IV. There are scarily on top of technology. I am at the other end of the spectrum. What is the opposite of an "early adaptor"? I have to be dragged kicking and screaming into anything new. Not really the update kind of a girl.

It is so frigging COLD around here. I must try and plan some future vacations. A friend called and told me he got a round trip ticket for $60 on Spirit. How come I never see those kind of deals? Plus, I DETEST Spirit for their nickel and diming of customers.

Slowly but surely

I am making a bit of progress on cleaning up the house and getting rid of stuff. My philosophy is, if it fell on the floor and got bent or dirty, out it goes. I am sure I cut it out or saved it for some good reason, but I know I can't deal with everything in that category.

Read a book called Pillow talk (book) on the Nook. It might have been a "free Friday" book, by Freya North. A woman is a jewelry designer in London. She runs into a man that she had a brief infatuation for many years ago when he was a guitarist in a rock band. He is now a teacher in an exclusive boys school sort of far from London. After a chance encounter, they get back together. There is also a theme of sleep walking and not very good parents. Her main influence was a woman she was visiting for a service project. They became very close and the woman left her a beautiful stone which she finally uses to make a fabulous bracelet which starts her career on its way.

Feel like I have no life except through literature and film. Cried over the last in the series of Call the midwife last night. Today was all caught up in a new audio book called Two boys kissing that I heard about when I witnessed two guys getting married recently. The minister who married them quoted something from this book and I just happened to see it at the Vineland Public library so I got it.

Losing the will to exercise

As the day goes on, I am less and less enthusiastic about getting to the gym. Have had a day full of errands with some fun stuff thrown in. The weather is DREADFUL....dank, damp, dark and dreary. I would give ANYTHING to FORGET about it.

Returning a book I got on Interlibrary loan....Stuff your face or face your stuff : lose weight by decluttering your life, by Dorothy "The Organizer" Breininger. Kind of rushed through it. I suppose it makes sense, but I did not undergo any "sartori" moments. I did like this bit from a book called "Food for the soul", which was shared by her therapist named Sharma. Here is a four sentence checklist to review feelings:
1. Anger is the feeling I get when I don't get my way today.
2. Resentment is the feeling I get when I think about having not gotten my way yesterday.
3. Fear is the feeling I get when I worry that I won't get my way tomorrow.
4. Depression is the feeling I get when I sit around wondering why I never get my way.

I'm fascinated by names

Must enter this thought so I can tear up a piece of paper and get it out of my life. Getting lighter, one item at a time.

Has anyone else noticed the penchant for making up names in our African American community? So, a guy named Jermarl died (I think perhaps he was shot). He had four children, named Jermarl, Jr., Jermiara, Jershuna and Jernasia. Can't you just imagine the mother yelling at them? He had ten brothers, of which the names Keontray and Tyehiem jumbed out at me, three sisters, including a Tonoa and a fiance named Tira.

This morning I went out with two goals to accomplish before I got in my car. Sprinkle salt on my outrageously icy front steps so that I don't accidentally kill myself and so that the mail woman doesn't do the same and fill up the bird feeder so that the murder of crows can devour it. That is what a group of crows is called, a MURDER. They are going through one feeder full every day because it is SO cold and snowy. I really want to help out the pretty, normal birds, but the blackbirds and the squirrels are dominating the back yard. My hands almost froze up as I didn't want to get my gloves all soiled with bird poop and salt. When I got into the car, it said it was two degrees below zero. That must be some kind of a record. Still and all, I made it to the exercise class almost on time (8 AM).

Limited time free access to local sluts

This is just one of the fascinating emails I receive. It is hard sifting through the crap to get to the nuggets of "real" mail. I set up another email account to give out now that everyone wants you to give your address. But I still can't ignore it.

Returning the Estelle CD to the Vineland Public Library. Didn't like it all that much. It has too much talking on it, for one thing. And my favorite Estelle song isn't even on there. The CD is called All of me. I probably bought it when I was the CD buyer there.

Getting less done online these days. Getting MORE done at home. I love sorting through my piles. Always discovering things I haven't thought about in years. I DO throw some of it out, but save things like good quotes and postcards from my mother. Just ten years ago she was in her right mind and had friends and went to art openings and sent me postcards. I treasure these findings. Sometimes they make my cry.

Diet Coke has an expiration date??!

That is a scary thought. You mean to tell me there are FRESH ingredients in Diet Coke? Yesterday I was drinking one that had an expiration date of the previous day. Not too worried about it. Anyway, recent thinking is that the expiration dates are just a suggestion.

I can't believe they are cancelling the show called Hoarders. Although I guess once you have seen one hoarders you have seen them all....chubby, low-class, unsmiling people with lots of crap. I enjoy watching it from time to time for a few minutes and hope that they are worse than me. I don't think I have animal excrement in my home. But I DO need to keep a trash bag in each room.

Having an ongoing struggle with Yahoo mail. Who are all of their customers? I don't know many people who still have Yahoo. I was fine with it until they started "upgrading" and trying to be like Google. Their customer service SUCKS. They have all kinds of online forms and aids but you can't get to a real person unless you have an account access issue.
That is what is the most frustrating thing. I have sent off at least 8 pissed off complaints just today. It is bad when the help instructions are just plain WRONG. I am losing emails (especially ones I have forwarded) and cannot change my signature, which I like to do once a week.

I gotta get out o'this town, if it's the last thing I ever do

Mexican doorbell at 6:30 AM.  Car horns honking, then loud Spanish rap coming from car waiting for whoever (whomever?).  Then more honking.  People are really inconsiderate around here.  I just try and WAIT them out.

The good news is I finally made a plane reservation.  The bad news is that I can't find my passport!  And there is a possibility that it has expired.  Was gonna go home and tear apart my house tonight but going out to dinner instead.  Which of the 52 piles is it at the bottom of?  Between the taxes not done and the passport not found, I am feeling somewhat frazzled.  But I could have worse problems....like no legs.

I hate, hate, hate our tax system.  Totally convoluted and confusing.  Called up an accountant hoping that she would know what I need to declare for my pension, but she didn't seem to have a clue.  I am sure if I contact my employer they will just say they can't give tax advice.  I am probably one of the few people who read the booklets cover to cover.  Did you know that you MUST declare all of your income from:
- bribes
- kickbacks
- illegal drug sales

Mahogany, Marquise and Makiah

This goes against my blog policy of never NAMING NAMES.  But I found this piece of paper that I wrote on while I was working and I didn't know where to file it and I couldn't bear to throw it out.  So I am writing it down here so I CAN throw it out.  I just love these creative names that a library patron named her children, especially Mahogany.

Measures of popularity - Everything is measured now in number of friends on Facebook and number of Twitter followers.  You can't argue with the hard cold facts!  These poor late night hosts have to compare their numbers of Twitter followers to see who comes out at the top of the pack.  I guess my only measure of popularity is whether anyone comments on my blog, so please do.  I don't even know how to ASK for "followers".  And I cannot understand why anyone would want to be friends with someone on Facebook that they don't even know!?  I guess I don't get it.

Where does the time go?  I have spent two hours just organizing my computer and dealing with my email!  Went to get my new glasses and they were closed for lunch.  (There oughta be a law...why can't they take staggered lunches like we do (did) at the library)?  So I had to come in to Larry's II to use the computer.  Practically every table was taken up by some card playing group so I couldn't sit where I usually do.  It is ALMOST perfect here except there is no PLUG.  Sigh.  I wish I was in Portland (Oregon) in some cool cafe.

This is the nail polish I got today.  I'm such a GIRL.  I really enjoy my Vietnamese nail technician and trying to explain the names of the O.P.I. polishes to her.  Usually they are PUNS which are hard to explain to someone whose language is not English.  This is Charged Up Cherry.

Walmart does have some good ideas

Although I am philosophically opposed to shopping at Walmart, I do go there occasionally to get cheap drugs.  I have to admit that they do have some good ideas...
- They have wet wipes for the carts
- The bathrooms are right near the front door and they are well maintained
- The whole entire curb out front is missing making ts really convenient for the passage of shopping carts and wheelchairs
Since my personal frugality rules dictate that I can buy only one thing per day that costs over $20, I just walked past all the temptation directly to the pharmacy and paid my $35 for my Clarinex.  I walked out without buying one additional thing. That isn't really so hard because I actually HATE shopping and kind of pride myself in my ability to get along without new stuff.  I am kind of embarrassed to admit that I took a shopping cart for this purchase because my PURSE is too heavy to lug around!

I was dreaming about a lake upon which my father lived.  Of course, it looked nothing like the lake where he really lived.  There was a lack of water and there were some boats in the lake sitting on the grass. There were three (red?) motorboats sitting together on a grassy knoll in the middle of the mud. The banks of this pond were really high, like mountains.  I thought to myself that I would invite my mother and father out for dinner one night.  Then I woke up and remembered that they were dead.

So many bad pens in the world.  I hate to throw them away.  Used to go downtown to the office supply store and get refills.  But that is just too difficult in the age of Staples with everything wrapped up in plastic.  Hard to get help.  So I guess we are just supposed to be wasteful and throw stuff away.
That is freally hard for me, being a hoarder.

Playing Sorry

Had a great night a few days ago hanging with two 6 year old twins.  They are very loving and within 5 minutes of seeing me, they are kissing me and saying "I love you".  We watched a really fun movie, the old Disney Swiss family Robinson.  Then I tried to entertain them during dinner preperations by playing Sorry with them.  It was somewhat of a struggle.  They thought they knew the rules, but they couldn't read the info on the cards and they had trouble counting the squares.  The other problem was that if anything bad happened to one of them he cried in frustration.  This did have somewhat of an inhibitory effect on my ability to play.  But we got through it.  I think it is a difficult age for games (losing).

Another cold and windy day.  I am SICK of it.

Went shoe shopping.  I really needed some Easy Spirit shoes.  They only had white in my size.  Oh well.  All the shoes seemed to be "on sale" but I think it is a racket.  An effective racket, at that.  I feel much better buying something if I think it is on sale, no matter what the actual price is.  I bought some other shoes, which I am not sure are really appropriate for someone 65 years old, but just for something different.  Now I need to go home and get rid of THREE pairs of shoes, all in the interest of cllutter control.  Plus, my women's group is recycling shoes.

1-800-GOT-JUNK?

You bet I do. Saw this roadside sign just as I was pondering the plethora of signs by the road and the fact that they always arrive, but they never leave. I think someone should take responsibility for removing the signs for craft fairs that happened over a month ago and candidates who tried unsuccesfully to unseat longserving politicians. Even Hurricane Sandy didn't seem to make a dent in them. I think I saw an art project at earth911.com for re-using these roadside signs.

Gas prices going DOWN in Vineland and going up in Bridgeton. What is with that? Nothing gives me more of a thrill than finding the cheapest gas price in the neighborhood.

Still have hives. Antihistamines did nothing, anti-fungal pills did nothing. I consulted my alternate health book which I keep at home for those diseases in the middle of the night and NO INTERNET occasions. It said if you still have hives after 6 WEEKS go see the doctor. I went after 24 hours cause I am a bit of a hypochondriac. I don't know why, I just love going to see my doctor. She says don't come back for three months, but I am always looking for a reason to come back sooner. Actually. hives are pretty unpleasant. Now I have a REASON for that creepy crawly feeling, I just don't know what it is. I want to scratch but I am trying not to.

So many books, so little time

Starting to collect more papers about books I would like to read. I was forced to clean up my office a few months ago and I had to let go of four Princeton file boxes full of papers and one big box piled full of paper....more books than anyone could POSSIBLY read in ONE lifetime. And those were all books which were available in the library where I was working. I threw them all away and went to a list system, losing most of them in the process. Ran across a good quote about reading this AM, will try to paste it in here: Norman Rush (1933- ) wrote, "The main effort of arranging your life should be to progressively reduce the amount of time required to decently maintain yourself so that you can have all the time you want for reading."

Finshed State of wonder, by Ann Patchett. It was an ebook I borrowed from the library on the Overdrive program, so it has just vanished into thin air. Usually I keep the hard copy of the item to remind myself to write a "review". Maybe I didn't quite yet finish it. Perhaps 6 pages to go. I liked it, but it was weird. A lot of physical discomforts, like bugs, snakes, malaria, etc. About medical research in the far off Amazon with strange tribes and rituals. Her new book has been recommended to me.

Must return my other book to a library about an hour away from me. I would like to go through it page by page, cause it is full of gems. I probably mentioned it already, Blogging for creatives : how designers, artists, crafters, and writers can blog to make contacts, win business, and build success, by Robin Houghton. Evan Williams had something to do with the founding of Twitter and also Blogger. In an interview with the author of my book in 2001, he said, "To me, the blog concept is about three things: Frequency, Brevity and Personality". Well, I've got the first two...not sure about the third.

Why did I order flavored coffee?

I don't even LIKE flavored coffee. But, in the quest for NEW EXPERIENCES, I was lured into ordering Red Velvet coffee this AM in the coffee shop. Now I have to load it up with cream and sugar. I have managed to train myself to get back to black but I like just plain old delicious coffee, not too strong. I am not really well set up this morning. In order to get the airconditioning, I had to give up the view and the table is too small. Also the chairs are uncomfortable. Perhaps I should develop an evaluation system for computer usage spaces.

Was reviewing my notes on CLUTTER this morning. I took two series of classes. One was on organizing and one was for your more serious clutterer (that's me). I learned that there are four clutter syndromes:

- vicarious clutterer
- comfort accumulator
- hunter-gatherer syndrome
- sentimental keeper complex

I am the comfort accumulator. She mentioned people who gather many objects in order to replace something missing in their lives (alright, she didn't say what). Also, single people who have collections which are over the top, such as too many cats or CDs. My personal pecadillo is paper clips. (why doesn't blogger have spell check?) I also have quite a collection of SCRAP PAPER. Entire sheets of plain paper which I am not even fond of using for scrap (I prefer lined paper). In addition to being a hoarder, I am a recycler. I can't bear to throw out anything that could be RE-USED.

Screwed by Sprint

Sprint is winning. I have visited two stores and called customer service 4 times and I give up. Guess I am not getting Sprint navigator back. Can't even THINK about the cell phone, it gets me so angry. The problem is I WANT stuff, but I don't want to PAY for it. Since I do not see any inheritances coming my way, I guess I will just have to try and not WANT so much. The irritating thing with Sprint is I LOST something I had had for 22 months and now they say I can't get it back.

Junk drawers - one person advises never to have one. My sister's junk drawer consists of keys, suntan lotion and bug spray. So I guess it is not really a junk drawer!

Things I need in every room - scissors, wastebasket, stapler, handiwipes, kleenex

Had lunch with the retired persons from my job today. It was funner than I was anticipating. Only four of us today. Of course, I am the youngster. We had fun talking about technology, change, libraries, bosses, coffee pots and people we worked with.

My assistant is the only one following me on Twitter...

OK, I STOLE that headline from an ad for Lucky in Vanity Fair. I'm not really even ON Twitter but I can see the appeal. When you have a THOUGHT, you want to share it. Instead, I have a bazilion scraps of paper here and there. But, that headline made me laugh, as it reminds me of the disconnect between wanting to have a blog and wanting it to be SECRET and ANONYMOUS.

Forgot my headphones today. I really regret that. Have an intense desire to listen to PSY Gangnam style. Suddenly, now, it is on the RADIO. Note to self: look up the translation of what he is saying (it is in Korean, with a few English words thrown in like "sexy lady"). I also have a need to listen to Playlist.com and see if the miracle which occurred the other day is still happening. I have been engaged in a love/hate relationship with this website for many months now. A bunch of months ago, I lost the ability to play down the list. Suddenly, it came back, making me not just a HAPPY camper, but an ecstatic camper.

Down at the beach again for the last class of Home organization 101. Actually, I have already taken this class, accidentally, twice before, due to some personal DISORGANIZATION. But, I like the teacher and the classmates and I like having a reason to come down to Sea Isle City. The boardwalk was kind of buggy, though, and the fudge shop was CLOSED. So, now I am just appreciating the great view from the library, overlooking the Intercoastal waterway. We had homework which I am rather BEHIND on. But, I DID get a few extra bags of trash down to the receptacle this week. Not as many as I SHOULD have, but more than the usual two bags weekly.
I am paying for this ginormous trash receptacle so I might as well FILL IT UP.

Deathly afraid of charges...

A friend of mine said the above in relation to cell phones....lest we should be tempted to think that EVERYBODY IN THE WORLD EXCEPT FOR us has a fancy iPhone or is on a family plan. Can't tell you how many HOURS I have spent on the phone or in the store with Sprint problems...mostly trying to get back my access to the Navigator which I have had up until a few weeks ago. Today a miracle occurred...I noticed that if I access it from one place, I get in. If I access if from another place, I am asked to subscribe. So, I have discovered the "answer" to my problem if I can just REMEMBER it now. Someone is supposed to call me back on Monday because I threatened to LEAVE Sprint (I know they are vulnerable at the moment cause customers are leaving them) I won't mention any names, but I have had at least FOUR customer care persons. They leave me on hold for four minutes of so of silence. I have decided that Sprint customer care is AN ENDURANCE CONTEST. I have been driven almost to TEARS or to a HEART ATTACK by these unexplainable and unfixable problems.

Then, another miracle....when I went to playlist.com, it started playing my songs in order. This hasn't worked for MONTHS. Could I dare to hope it is PERMANENT?! But, of course, NOTHING is permanent. Even my friend who told me he would ALWAYS be living around here is threatening to leave. But, I digress. I can't tell you how HAPPY a little FREE playlist makes me. I have been avoiding the whole itunes thing cause I am DEATHLY AFRAID OF CHARGES.

Trying to think of THREE TOPICS every time I post. Because I have a certain rigid, list-making aspect of my personality which cannot be denied.

OK, the third topic for today is my clutter-related accident. I was baking last night for a fundraiser for my church. (I don't cook or clean unless under duress) I was leaning over the cluttered floor to put the peach cobbler in the oven and I lost my balance and grabbed ahold of the top of the stove. Unfortunately, this included the burner which had recently been turned off due to butter melting. OUCH! My fingers look OK today but I had to spend quite a bit of time with them under cold running water due to the pain. Plus, I am left-handed and was in the middle to trying to pay some bills.

What's wrong with white people?

Another, "Why didn't I think of that?!?!" moment. Heard interview on NPR of Joan Walsh, who wrote a book called What's wrong with white people : why we long for a golden age that never was. SUCH a clever title.

Feeling better now that I am out of the house and ON THE ROAD. Was doing an archeological dig at home this morning, still trying to get to the bottom of my "errands" pile. I threw away some things without examining them. This causes me GREAT anxiety. I also found a gift certificate for Borders books. I think they went out of business (sob). Also a gift certificate for Haars health food store in Vineland, NJ, dated 2001. I am not too proud to go in there and ask them if I can still use it!

Finished Caleb's crossing this AM. It made me cry. Yes, it was sad, but I wondered if should go back on my anti-depressants. The author, Geraldine Brooks, lives on Martha's Vineyard and Caleb was the first Native American to graduate from Harvard in the mid-1600's. The story is really more about the life of the narrator, a woman named Bethia. Life was rough back then, especially for Indians and women and I had no desire to experience it. My sister was reading the SAME book at the SAME time.
But she was doing it as an assignment from her book club. One of the members of her group has a house on Martha's Vineyard and took the girls over there for a weekend. They went out looking for places where Caleb might have hunted or fished. Now, THAT is what I call a book club!

OMG...I finally found the title box!

A hellish day with Sprint. What I learned....Don't rock the boat. It took me HOURS to UNDO the mess I got into trying to save money with Sprint last week. Supposedly, I will be eligible for an UPGRADE on October 1st. Right now, I am so traumatized by my customer support experiences that I can't bear to think about changing anything with my phone. Is there any time period longer than a two year contract with a cell phone company?

I had to come back to the library just cause I forgot to get my printouts. Hope I don't forget them again!

Trying to spend some time each day organizing STUFF at home. My organizing teacher says start with 19 minutes. (I need to spend an hour to accomplish 19 minutes worth of work). So my new goal is to spend 19 minutes a day on the main project (bedroom closet was assigned in my class), 19 minutes on something else, and gather up one bag of trash per day. Today going through my "errands" pile. Got about halfway down and am finding stuff I put in the pile which expired in 2007. Of course, I have to examine every single piece of paper (not recommended) before deciding where it goes.

It is so much work being me! I have library cards all over. Just put a book on hold. They are going to send it over to Sea Isle City from Cape May Court House library. No matter that I live an hour away from Sea Isle City. The book is about blogging for creative people. I'd like to be creative. And here I am blogging.  Really, this is just an online diary!

Went to a free program last night at the Sea Isle City library. It is a four week program on Home organization 101. Someone thought that meant it was in ROOM 101.
Life is so complicated. There were 14 women there. The instructor said her classes are 100% women. She gave us an assignment, to organize a bedroom closet. One of the ladies asked, "Which one? ONE of my houses has ELEVEN bedrooms." Later she said that she had 250 pairs of shoes to give away. Yikes, how the other half lives.

She asked us to think of someone we would like to meet and then we had to write what that person would see when they came through our home. I couldn't think of anyone, but stole someone else's idea of Johnny Depp. Yes, he gives me palpitations. Someone else I'd like to meet is Serena Williams. Now, there is one fine hunk of woman. But, I digress.....That wasn't the point of the exercise. I remember an old black and white Tracy/Hepburn movie in which I was so impressed that the day she met him, she invited him in and her apartment was pristine.

I just finished listening to an audiobook called, It's all too much, read by the author, Peter Walsh. He had (has?) a TV show called Clean sweep. It is all about clutter. It is quite funny with a lot of good quotes, such as, "A garage is not a stuff cemetery". You almost wished you had the book in hand so you could remember the quotes, and get the lists, but is is pleasant listening to his Australian accent.

True believers is a book by Kurt Anderson, who is on Studio 360 on NPR. A woman who was involved in various radical activites decides to write a book about her past telling the truth about some people and activites. I enjoyed the cultural references to the 60's and 70's as that is MY era.