Generosity, procrastination, & accomplishment

It seems an age since I blogged, though it really hasn't been that long. To sum up what's been happening with me. . .

SL bought me the sweetest gift on Friday: a gift certificate for an hour-long massage! He knows I get a lot of tension in my neck & upper back, and I've been talking for a while about how much I'd like to get a massage but just don't have the money to spend on one right now. I can't wait to put that gift certificate to good use! What a thoughtful gift.

Like many people, I am a procrastinator. (One of my oft-repeated mottos is "If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would ever get done.") I also became spoiled over the years I was a nurse and a student by having free time on weekdays to run errands. As a result of these two facts, I had an accumulation of errands that I could only run on Saturday mornings. (Going to the post office, taking 8 mm film to a video editor, taking a pair of pants in for alterations, among other assorted tasks.) This past Saturday, I finally "bit the bullet" and forced myself to get EVERYTHING done. I even visited Hallmark & bought my Father's Day cards already. What a good feeling! The only thing about the morning that wasn't good was that it was like a million degrees out. (Seriously, I think we set a record high: it was about 106 or soomething.)

As I've mentioned before, I am constantly struggling to keep my home clean and to get rid of clutter. I'm very organized in my mind, but in my home, not so much. Sunday evening, I did the Flylady Crisis Cleaning (from flylady.net). I was surprised at how much I accomplished in a total of one-and-a-half hours working in 15-minute increments! I completely cleaned the kitchen (with the exception of cleaning out the refrigerator), including unloading and re-loading the dishwasher; I completely tidied up the living room, including vacuuming (and believe me, that room was a disaster); and I cleaned everything in my bathroom but the tub. Pretty cool. I kept the momentum going and got 5 loads of laundry done, too. (I normally do laundry on Monday or Tuesday nights and do 6-8 loads; that's for both of us for the whole week.) Last night I washed towels, our sheets, and some clothes I needed for work. And because the laundry room was not being used by anyone else, I took advantage of that and also washed bathmats and mattress pads. Now I'll only have 2-3 loads to wash tonight or tomorrow.

I sound like a dork as I re-read this, but I had such a good feeling of accomplishment from getting all this done. Makes me wonder why I put this kind of stuff off all the time. Now if I could just tackle my clutter. It's pretty pathetic that SL & I have lived in this place since October 2005 and I still have boxes that I have not unpacked. (sigh)

Other than cleaning and errands, I spent most of the weekend reading. I'm taking a break from Guns, Germs, & Steel (about 2/3 of the way through) and have started The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillippa Gregory. I like historical fiction. I also bought a few other books this weekend: The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason (my July book club selection), the 2nd Bridget Jones book, and The Nannie Diaries. (I'd always planned to read the last two, but seeing that The Nannie Diaries is being made into a movie inspired me to finally get it.)

SL & I had lunch with our friends M & A on Saturday. That was a pleasant surprise. They moved about 100 miles away about 6 weeks ago, and we hadn't seen them since. They were just in town for the day. It was good to see them & to catch up.

What else is going on? I have a trial this week--yea! This will be my third consecutive auto theft trial. Frankly, I am ready to do something a little different, like a home burglary or something. But I'll take it.