Keeping it Real

I'm trying to get into a habit of posting on Sundays.  I've noticed in the past that if I miss just one week then it's easy to miss two weeks and then months etc.  Kind of like most things in life. 

And yet today, I'm finding it hard because I don't know what to write about.  It was a hard week.  Actually, it was a hell of a hard week.  A level of frustration and anger in general (work related) had been building over the past few months -- I've essentially been ignoring it and trying to just put my head down and focus on what I need to do instead of getting pulled into a bunch of petty political crap. Earlier this week I could feel a crash coming on as a result and I fought against it...using what I've learned.  But then a phone call on Wednesday afternoon gut punched me...and that was all that was needed to send me spiraling down.  I was pretty much nonfunctional for three and a half days. I was so annoyed with my profession that I just didn't care to work...I was too depressed to do anything fun (like create or knit or spin or exercise or cook)...I honestly don't really remember what I did...very typical when I crash.  

Finally, late afternoon yesterday, I started to come out of it.  I don't know what pulled me out exactly except that I received a card from a friend in the mail and immediately my spirits were raised (how is it that something so small can make such a huge difference?).  I made a favorite dinner (simple and easy but delicious) and last minute decided to pull a can of home-grown peaches out of the pantry for the easiest and most delicious peach cobbler (because fruit, butter, and sugar never fail to make me happy) (Recipe: put peaches in a dish.  Mix equal parts flour and sugar [I did 1 cup each for a quart jar amount of peaches] with 2 eggs.  Spoon over peaches.  Pour 6 tablespoons of melted butter over top.  Bake at 425 for 30-45 minutes [took about 40 min last night]).  And then we sat down to a decent movie (I thought it would be better given the hype I've seen but it was entertaining), the start of a new series (recommended by Kristie and so far is very good and intense), and an old favorite.  I may have also enjoyed a bit of whiskey. 

Now -- keeping it real.  Another frustration that has been building is my office space.  It was a disaster.  As I got busier and busier and the number of projects I have to keep organized got larger and larger, I just couldn't keep up with it all -- honestly I think I lost the will.  I just started to pile things wherever there was space instead of trying organize at all.  The result?  I was 'losing' things right and left and when I tried to find something, it would take me ages if I could find it at all.  Again, so unlike me -- the organizational freak -- but a direct result of having too many simultaneous projects to deal with.  So feeling better today, I finally decided that something must be done.  And honestly I became a bit obsessed.  It started with just shifting some notebooks that have data that we are done with (those papers have been published or soon to be published) into a protected area of the basement.  That opened up some shelf space to put current notebooks of data.  And from there, I just started going through everything (well, there are still some areas of the office that need attention but I ran out of time and steam to finish them...they need attention but they are at least tidy!).  I found stuff I thought I had lost forever.  I threw a bunch of stuff out.  My office had become a place to throw anything...I had sports gear in there, I had knitting stuff in there...  So some of what you'll see below involved shifting things to other areas where they were supposed to go.  I found it most interesting that going through the piles, I could pinpoint the year when I started to just pile instead of organize.  2009.  So when I look at the 'before' pictures, I feel a bit better that it took 5 years to reach this point (let's ignore that it also took 5 years to deal with it all)...

I can't even begin to tell you how much this simple act of cleaning up that space helped my mental state.  I'm still upset and annoyed with the petty political crap, but now feel able to face it.  What do they say?  A cluttered space leads to a cluttered mind?  I believe that.

And now...maybe you are thinking that it couldn't have been that bad?  Pictures from 3 different angles...the before picture on top of the after picture.  In a way, I'm embarrassed to show you these because of just how out of hand this space had gotten.  But maybe you have a space like this...one you think will take you ages to deal with?  Mine took about 7 hours.  Half a day.  Doable.  Now you.

I bet you can't even tell what you are looking at.  Yes, there is a floor under all those piles.

Now you can see what it is supposed to look like.  aaaahhhhh.

You can see from this angle, I did actually leave enough floor uncovered to get into the room and to move around in my chair just a bit.  But only 'just enough'.  Soon I wouldn't have been able to do that.

Aaaahhhhhhhhh....

Not conducive to productivity...but funny that since I left a place for my chair to move a bit, this picture doesn't look too bad!

Aaaaahhhhhhhhh....

Hopefully back next week with something more interesting...both to you and to me!  Have a good week.
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Now playing:  Mr. Bojangles by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

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