don't worry, you will

I had a really nice day, thanks for asking. I got up of my own accord around seven and laid in bed doing nothing for an hour, but then I spent a couple of hours drinking iced coffee, reflecting on last month, and planning for this month. This feels like the eye of the storm between last month's crazy travel + work schedule and this month's work + move schedule, so I took advantage of the quiet to consider what I want to accomplish.

Then, I started purging my books - and of course it was a mistake to do this, because that really just meant that I sat on the floor of my office for hours reading snippets of a bunch of books. My mother would find this familiar, since this is where all attempts to clean my room always stalled. I got through over half of the ones I was sorting and have decided to get rid of some, but I've still got a ways to go (and many piles on my floor).

However, I eventually had to stop so that I could shower and drive into Denver. My friend Sherry is in town for the weekend - she was invited to speak at a convention that is going on in Denver this weekend (formerly ComicCon, now called something else), and so we met up for an early dinner. It was challenging to retrieve her from the bowels of downtown conference traffic hell, but I found her and took her to Linger, which was tasty - but in retrospect, although I like Linger on most days, I was in the mood for something totally different and more comforting. Sherry was also exhausted because she's in the middle of final edits on a book and also speaking at this conference, so it was a v. lowkey and chill evening. But as usual it was great to see her - if I were going to my family reunion next weekend, I might have swung through Austin to see her there, but I'm not (and she's not there now anyway), and I'm not going to RWA this year, so I'm glad we got the chance to catch up outside of our usual times together.

After we were done, I dropped her off at her hotel, came back to Boulder, picked up some stuff at the grocery store, came home, folded laundry, changed my sheets, and then did nothing but daydream about paint and mess around on twitter. And now that it's clear that I'm not going to be any more productive than I've already been, it's time for bed - goodnight!

she's got a boyfriend anyway

Today was way more productive than my Saturdays usually are - I'm pretty determined to purge stuff before moving, so that was the main goal. I got up around eight, drank some coffee, and immediately dragged all the clothes out of my closets, dresser, etc. and threw them on my bed, thus forcing myself to make progress if I wanted to sleep tonight. Marie Kondo's method involves doing all the clothes at once, rather than doing a closet or drawer at a time, which seems to make a lot of sense - when you see how much stuff is piled in one place, it's a grim reminder of how much stuff you (or at least me) have accumulated.

So I spent a couple of hours this morning doing that, but I took a break to drive into Denver and have brunch with Barbara. She drove up from Colorado Springs to meet me, and we had a delightful time - we caught up over food, and then we walked across the street to Room and Board and did some window shopping (and some lounging on some outdoor furniture that I'm now completely coveting - I'm thinking of going lounge-y with my outdoor furniture, and I was seriously impressed by the fact that the upholstered furniture on the rooftop deck all felt dry despite the rain we'd had a couple of hours earlier). It was great to see her, and it was nice to have one social activity today to get me out of the house.

After that, I thought about doing some more shopping in Denver, or sticking around and seeing Katie...but the specter of the huge pile of clothes on my bed was enough to lure me back home. I spent most of the rest of the afternoon/evening dealing with the clothes situation - I was able to eliminate a lot of stuff that no longer sparks joy, and it's vaguely sorted into piles that I may be able to sell vs stuff I can donate vs stuff I just need to recycle/toss. Unfortunately, I also had to confront the fact that many of the pieces that still spark joy don't really fit because I gained about twenty pounds between traveling, not working out, and eating at Google (and probably also from being stressed/depressed last year). So, while this is probably not strictly following the KonMari method, I kept the clothes that spark joy but don't fit, although I put them into a storage box rather than hanging them back in my closet. They don't take up much space, so I'll give myself a year to see if I can fit back into them...but for now they'll just have to spark joy in a box rather than on my body.

sssanyway. I tidied up the last thing around ten p.m., and while I still have piles in my room, everything has been sorted and my bed was cleared again. Then I took a break and watched another Marie Kondo episode, which was a funny reward for having just spent all day cleaning, but whatever.

And now I need to sleep - goodnight!