Musings

Finally after three weekends in a row of travelling, I am going to hunker down at home and do some cleaning and crafting, about which I am very excited.

Plans for the weekend were to spend the day on Martha's Vineyard tomorrow, but given the ominous weather report, those plans will probably be cancelled as we are going out there without a car, or I should say, my sister and I will be without a car while my dad takes the one vehicle we're taking over to a traffic safety demonstration. I think we envisioned ourselves shopping, hanging out and maybe even lounging on the beach, but in the rain, those plans really take a nosedive, especially with the lacking transportation. I hate to even admit, but I was slightly relieved to hear the weather. These past few weeks have certainly been enjoyable, but grueling. Living out of a suitcase every weekend can be irksome, but make that three weekends in a row, throw in driving an average of 1,000 miles a week, and then add in 10-12 hour days at work so as not to lose precious vacation hours you get one tired person. At least all the travelling I have done has been for fun: sister's graduation in Virginia, cousin's graduation in New York, two-year reunion in Northampton, relaxing getaway in Maine. But still, my relief at sleeping late in my own bed is great.

Of course my bedroom is a huge disaster. My sister has been keeping some stuff in there while she moves around her room and unpacks her stuff and moves things she doesn't need at this moment in time to storage. I don't mind that there's a bookcase, a box of something that I forget and a large wheelie suitcase in my room, but this does make moving around somewhat of a problem. And since I can't access things easily, like my closet, for example, I think "hell I'll just wait to unpack." Deadly choice. Last night we finally moved the bookcase out, and instead of putting away my packed clothes, I dumped them in the middle of my floor, rolled up my duffel (Vera Bradley, Citrus Print!!) and watched Primetime instead of being productive and cleaning up my shit. argh. Now I have some work ahead of me. I am optimistic about it though, cause HOLY CRAP I have two entire full days at home! I am even playing hooky from volunteering, which I feel slightly guilty about. But only slightly since they've been a little bitchy about people coming in only on weekends. Ha. I know the directors mean well, but their job is running the sanctuary. Mine is working at this cancer hospital. 8-4. Mon-Fri. I wish I could work at the shelter, but it's not gonna happen. I think because I used to work there every day while semi-employed the directors are kind of bitter that I got a job and can only come on weekends, and though they have an overflow of volunteers they feel bad about telling me not to show up on weekends because I was once uber-committed. Ah well.

Anyways. Other optimistic things about this weekend are the multi and varied crafts that lie ahead of me. Firstly, I have an entire "fix it" table that needs to be dealt with. Broken clothes mostly, or half finished sewing projects. The purses I have made are big ones, they are just stacked on my fix it table. Some I haven't even made yet, like several for my sister, and I think the timing for making them is just right. Her fabrics are pretty and summery and since she is not a large bag whore like me, they would be just about the right size for her, so that will be fun, especially since I now know that plastic mesh is the key to getting the form of the purse just right. I think I need to fix a few of the purses I made for my mom too. So I'll do that. Then there is much scrapbooking to be done. I am working on a secret scrapping project, plus I want to do my basic Kenya album. There are going to be two Kenya albums. The first will be like my other album, simple 8 1/2 by 11 black paper. The pics will be mounted right on the paper, I think, with stories explaining the situation. I will put every single one of the 300 pictures I took in that album, with a few added in of the London side trip, which won't be in the "artful" scrapbook." The artful scrapbook will be the one I show guests. It will have about a third of the pictures as the big book, and they are my personal favorites/bests, along with some taken by other people on the trip. This is supposed to be my masterpiece, set up perfectly with stickers and quotations and mounted photos and colored paper. This may take a while, but I am really looking forward to getting it just right.

If I get sick of any of those projects I might try some others from the craft blogs I've been stumbling upon left and right. So I started reading Loobylu after Dooce featured some artwork of hers. Then I kind of got into littlebirds, which then led me to wee wonderfuls. I don't recall how I stumbled upon whipup or luckybeans, which has crafts but I mostly read because the author and her family live in Zambia, and as an Africaphile I will read anything that has to do with the great continent and reading a first hand account of life there is wonderful. I'm sure the author is like "my life is so average, why would anyone but family and friends read this (besides creepy internet stalkers)?" but I look forward to each new posts and love the pictures, even if it does make me "homesick" (is that the right word?) for Kenya times 1,000,000,000. Sigh. Ok, wandering off topic; point: crafty blogs have given me soooo many fun crafty ideas, like this divine colored pencil holder, which I intend to modify and make for my knitting needles! Maybe even with felt numbers.....oooohhhhhhh good idea...........

The only bad things about the weekend: rain so I can't garden. While this isn't heartbreaking or anything, I noticed that my small garden which is lovely from afar is unkempt as hell. It needs edging and weeding. And de-lilybugging, though I am tempted to rip up the tiger lilies altogether as those little lily beetle bastards destroy them every summer. Also, I feel like I really need to reign in my life. The past three weeks have been a flash of gas-consuming, food-consuming, nearly unconscious purchasing of goods and gifts. So when I read Suze Orman's column in Oprah about a young girl who was out of school but still lived with her parents, had $8,500 in credit card debt despite working two jobs and student loans, I thought it sounded hauntingly familiar. And then when I read Suze's advice to "stay put and get out of debt" I thought "shit I am never getting out of this house." Which turns into "I am not getting out of this house until I get married," which turns into "I can never afford to get married," which turns into "even if I do get married, I won't be able to afford a house, and we'll have to live with my parents." Once the thought process gets that far, I start to panic. I think this time the whole deal hit me hard enough to actually REALLY do something about it. I feel like I'm lazy with finances. I pay my bills on time (except the car) and pay more than the amount due, but I feel like I'm slacking because I could really be working hard at paying down the cards. Moreover, I should only have about 6 car payments left at this point, but I have more like 9. Awful! Especially when you consider that I could have an extra $325 a month to mess around with and put towards credit card debt. With that kind of spare change I bet I could be debt free in a year! Argh! So yeah, that's my other weekend mission. Fix life. Hahahahahah not like there's much on my plate is there? At least I'm no longer feeling like I'm about to have a nervous breakdown, LOL.