Cremes

So yesterday was very productive for me. I spent the entire day here by myself, just like the old days in my one bedroom apartment. The only difference was that I had lots of things to clean and didn’t get around to exercising. And I didn’t watch a movie, which was pretty typical of those days. I have Steel Magnolias, and it’s been here forever, but I got so absorbed in my cleaning that I didn’t realize how late it was until 6pm rolled around. I attacked our shredding area, our desk, and the filing area. I made some good changes, and everything looks much neater now, and is more organized. I caught up with our shredding - and I’m already behind again after purging our files - and then I allocated something that is supposed to be for hanging files and turned it into a depository for all things shred-able. Then I started on the desk, getting rid of a few things, organizing others. I’m hoping to be able to sell our old printer on ebay but Mike doesn’t think it will go. It’s an old crusty Lexmark. If nothing else, it’s going into storage. Or Goodwill.

And then I attacked our filing system. We have one of those plastic filing things that only holds about 100 folders with a few documents in them. We had a huge pile of papers right next to it that needed filing, and another pile on the coffee table. I opened up the filing gizmo and just sort of balked at the sight of it. I knew I was going to have to start from scratch, and I didn’t have enough file folders to cut it. So I went to Office Depot. I came back with filing labels, 100 file folders in primary colors, and a little thingy to hold paper clips and stuff like that. And 4 hours later, I was done. I color-coded all of our categories (Finance = green, Automobiles = red) and then made separate folders for each type of document in that category. I even made a category for personal folders, and then I organized all the folders I had left and stuck them in the box for future use. (And then I shoved that under the futon/couch - we only have so much storage!) But now it’s very neat and organized and visually appealing. One of the tips that I read in “Organizing from the Inside Out” was that if your method of ‘containerizing’ (as she calls it) doesn’t appeal to you, then you just won’t use it. And it’s true.

I have lots of other ideas for organizing later, but unfortunately that all requires buying some sort of container. For now we have to make do with small changes, but I think it’s coming. I don’t want to buy anything that is part decor since I’m not sure how it will fit or match in our house later on. I would really like to buy some shelves, for instance, but after the hassle and expense of getting the shelves here and installed, is it really worth it for temporary housing? When we move, I intend to be at that place for at least 5 years, if not 15. (I hate moving.)

The end result here is that I feel like I really improved our home life and I’m hoping that just knowing that our files, the desk, and the shredding situation are under control after a good day’s cleaning will ease the stress and the nerves that I’ve been feeling lately. If I can devote just a few hours a week to organizing and figuring out a long term plan for keeping things going smoothly around here, then I’ll probably sleep better at night knowing that it’s going to be just fine. Last week was really rough for a lot of reasons, and I’m just starting to feel better about it all. I know some people have been praying for me out there, and I just wanted to thank you, and let you know that it actually is helping (although I shouldn’t be surprised!). So thanks, and have a good week yourself!

So we’ve moved around a little bit at the office. We got some new desks and with that some walls. It’s still taking a lot of getting used to, but I’m hoping that once I receive my office supplies I can get organized. We are still working on that extra project these days, but it is slowly nearing its end. We only have to deal with some xrays (not that many actually) and 24 boxes of unknowns. Basically, that just means interfiles. So pretty much we just have to go through them all and make sure the information isn’t duplicated in the actual case file and then just stick it in. We have a few boxes with case files we actually still have here, so those will be a breeze. It’s the rest that will be very time consuming. But we’re getting there.

I’ve been pretty stressed out lately too, I have to admit. It just seems like I haven’t been able to get much of anything done. My half.com sales have been really good lately and so I’ve been trying to keep up with that and updating my sales spreadsheet. I finally got my total last night, and I’ve sold $400 worth of stuff already! That’s not counting expenses, of course, but it’s still very cool. As of last night, my new laptop is officially paid off. I have $13 free dollars now, but I imagine most of my half.com sales from now on will go towards paying off our clothing budget overexpenditures. Mostly for my work clothes.

I’m definitely looking forward to the weekend! I might come in to work for a little while tomorrow morning, but I haven’t made up my mind yet. I will probably only decide tomorrow when I get up. See what I feel like doing. Housework is almost all caught up, just need to tidy up the kitchen and straighten the bedroom and the living room. The bathroom is also in need of a cleaning! I wish I didn’t shed so much hair; it gets everywhere and looks gross.

Anyways, my lunch break is over and so I guess I should get back to it. Sometimes it goes by so quickly! I hope that everyone is doing well and enjoying the last few days of the summer months.

So there’s is talk of a hurricane on its way. We stocked up on Gatorade today and we’ve talked about what we’ll do if we have to evacuate, but I really hope that we get to stay put. It’ll be a pain in the butt if we have to pack up some food, a couple things to do, our computers, and the cat. Especially the cat. She’ll be covered in drool and all panicked before we even get out of the city! Hopefully we’ll be off the hook and just get some nasty rain and wind - or nothing at all.

Work has been pretty hectic lately. I just finished up re-boxing some reports from way back in 1977. It was dusty work but I feel good about having accomplished something. Blanca was out yesterday so I was all by myself in our office. I just played some tunes on my iPod stereo, had some snacks and just worked on that project pretty much all day. I’ve been making some progress on all of my mini projects at work, though, so that’s making me feel good. It’s weird that this is the first Saturday that I haven’t been in to work in several weeks. I’m still liking the job, although I wish there were less office politics in the air. I just keep to my job and try to do well, and I’m definitely not hurting for things to keep me busy. We’re getting our new furniture on Tuesday and I’m really excited! Once we get it, we’re going to order a bunch of new office supplies and get really organized with our filing. We were only supposed to get it delivered (and installed, basically) in September, so we were excited about the new delivery date.

I’m liking my new computer a lot. I’ve been using Office 2007 and so far I think it’s great. I’ve also started messing around with Microsoft Access. We’ve been using it a lot at work and I’m going to try and use it to sort out my ebaying stuff. One of these days I’m going to try and get rid of the rest of the stuff that I have laying about here. Who knows when I’ll have the time though, it’s a pain to get all of my stuff listed, then shipped and blah blah. It can become a full time job in itself. I listed some books on half.com recently, some texts that a friend gave me with the purpose of selling them. I’ve sold two already, and it’s only been a week! I’m hoping that I get a bunch more sales since it’s getting close to back to school time, and I have a lot of textbooks listed. My only concern is that a lot of those books are for Canadian history courses and I wonder if Canadians can even buy things through half.com. I might have to find another venue for those books if I want to get them sold. Any ideas?

Tonight we’re going to have dinner with Mike’s mom. His dad is out of town, so we thought it would be nice to spend some time with her, especially since she’s had a pretty crazy week. It’s so nice to be able to do whatever I want on a Saturday! I meant to do some cleaning today but I just didn’t get around to it. It’s only 4pm, but most of the day is gone by now.

Anyways, here’s hoping I’m not blogging next from a location far away because we had to evacuate.

Well, I’ve been doing pretty good. I know that I haven’t been updating at all lately, it’s been hard to have any spare time for much of anything lately. I’ve barely had any time to play with my new computer! Last night I was supposed to stay late but I just couldn’t do it, so we decided to just forget it and head home at 5. I cooked dinner (or reheated it, more or less) and then zoned out in front of the TV for the rest of the evening. Needless to say, all my projects are not getting accomplished. The dining table is still scrapbooking central with no end in sight. I just wish I had the time and energy for all of this stuff. This project that’s been keeping us in overtime up to our eyeballs has been making life more about work work work and less about anything else.

But hey, I’ve been racking up loads of comp time so I’ll get extra time off later. I’m starting to get pretty excited about my upcoming vacation to Canada. It seems a little strange to think of going to my mom’s place as a vacation, but that’s what it is. It’s going to be a lot of fun, I think. I’ll have to get all my Christmas cards ready to go before the 22nd since that’s when we’ll be heading out. We should probably book our flights soon.

My computer is pretty awesome though! I haven’t had any time to move my stuff over from the Macbook to the new PC. I’m probably going to use the new external hard drive to do that, make it simple. I’m also planning to re-rip all of my music that I had on the Macbook and iPod so that it has all the information entered in correctly. Before I didn’t care so much, but I’d like to have that all sorted out. I’m thinking about picking up one of the larger video iPods when I finally upgrade, so that I can have all of my music. My collection is just breaking 4 GBs these days so I can’t have everything I want on there. Lately I’ve been getting more CDs since joining that SwapaCD club. I’m getting the new Mandy Moore in the mail, I’m pretty excited about that.

I got to see Ratatouille on Tuesday night, and it was so cute! Everyone has got to see it, I’m totally going to pick that up on DVD. I’d still like to get Stranger Than Fiction on DVD, but I’m waiting for the price to drop a little bit. In a few months I should be able to pick it up for a few dollars. It was such a good movie. I’ve got Steel Magnolias on deck since I got it yesterday from Netflix. Mike’s not interested in watching it, so I may have to wait until he’s busy reading or working with our new budgeting program.

Anyways, my lunch hour is pretty much over, so I’ll be leaving this off here. Hopefully I’ll have more time to update in the coming weeks!