Monday Monday

I didn't have to work today. Today was one of the first Monday's I really and truly took *off*! Of course, I did go in for 3 hours on Saturday and 3 hours on Sunday. But the quality of 6 hours on the weekend versus the Monday hectic chaos is so different ;-).

My dad is here from Oklahoma - helping himself with the house. I'll post pictures of the window/wall they demo'd - and the beauteous french doors that are now installed. Dad came over today by himself to varnish/seal the back fence, paint the iron screen, and do some work on the bit of wall that will be the new home for the fridge in the kitchen.

Himself hooked up the 'net at the new house, so I've been able to pay my car loan, and look up the closits system I want to put at the end of the craft room. It isn't as cheap as I was hoping, but it is under $1,000... and it gives me a chance to catch up on blogging.


Rascal is sooo much better. He's still skittish around dad, but after a bark or two is calm and overall so much happier when people come into the house. New friend Coffeegal came over the other day and Rascal woofed and did his thing, but then was quiet and calm, and it is just such a change!! Walking in the morning has been a change too -- now that he has some guidelines and parameters.

Dogs 101 is the guy we used, Al Rossomando is the trainer/owner and he was terrific. I highly reccommend him!!

Things have been so busy... Had my work evaluation on Thursday... and no surprises there, which is exactly how you want that kind of thing to go. It only took them 3 months to realize that I am time-management challenged and have a confidence problem. The confidence isn't all the time, nor is it in all things. But there are so many new challenges with the TGC that I want to be sure I'm on the right track with decisions I make. Because, I will make the simplest task as complicated as humanly possible. Which will slow things down. And it will keep things disorganized because who can bother finding the folder in the file in the cabinet in the red section that is for the Ladybugs A to M?

One of the rules of simplicity is - duh - being simple. Keeping categories of organization to a minimum. You know what 2 by 4 hit me with that knowledge today? The Ikea website. Yep. As I'm surfing for cheaper craft organization ideas, I know that Ikea is the super-est place to go for that... and some little cartoon doo-ma-bob plays and now I will remember that in order to keep things simple one must keep it simple. It sounds so redundant when I say it like that.

The reason I'm even blogging about this issue is because I spent 2 hours this morning being overwhelmed by organizing my rubber stamps. And, for those that know, over half of my craft goodies are in Scotland... so I don't even HAVE all my stamps and inks and paper and books and and and.... *sigh* Anyhoo ~ Between Scrapping and Stamping there are lots of categories... do I want to have "flowers" or "Garden & Floral" ? Do Butterflies have their own category or do they belong in "Garden & Floral"? When I want to see what Butterfly stamps I have, will I look under "B" for Butterfly or "Garden & Floral?" See what I mean?

[side note: I'm using himself's laptop at the new house, because the other house has been disconnected... and it is a British Laptop, and the @ key is where the " (quotes) are on the US keyboard. It's driving me a little nuts. AND the ~ ~ sign, which I prefer over the regular 'ol dash- isn't anywhere close to where it lives on the American keyboard. So I keep typing I@m instead of I'm and it is getting a little frustrating. Know my pain. Thanks for reading]

Do I want Autumn to include Halloween and Thanksgiving, or do I want a separate category for each holiday? And really, since no banks are closed on Halloween, is it really a Holiday? Will I remember that the two stamps I have with the 'little old ladies' (2 ladies on one, 3 ladies on the other) are filed under "Little Old Ladies"? Does it matter? It isn't likely that I'll buy duplicates of the little old lady stamps... which is why the whole organization thing is key, so you don't buy doubles. I have 'sets' and 'backgrounds' and 'swirls & flourishes' -- and if I don't do all the stamps at one time I forget what category I decided the Single Stroke paint stamp goes in... borders? backgrounds? Can you see why sometimes I struggle with keeping things simple?

So, instead of figuring out what card the craft class will do in two weeks... I messed around with trying to organize stamps. And I did very little. I'm not happy with what I have done, and want to start again.. but Hello! Isn't that defeating the purpose of getting organized in the first place? I think so. argh. And also... we're moving. If you come into my house, you'd never know we were moving... *sigh* I'm sure himself is more than frustrated at some of the lack of moving that isn't really happening.

So ~~ in other fun news... coffeegal and sang at Splendido at Rancho Vistoso on Friday at their "First Friday" event... explained to me as a casual entertainment late afternoon event that the residents can come to before they go in to dinner. Coffeegal gives an entertaining description of the place on her blog. The smallest retirement apartment there is only 200 square feet smaller than my new house. There were probably a dozen people in the room, and coffeegal got to see me at my panicked worst... missing the turn on the way there because the road had one name for the street if you're going north, and another name for the street if you're going south... I had all the electrics plugged into the wall but not into my actual sound system so I exclaimed "there's no power!" -- then realize after trying new plugs etc... that the problem was me, the user, not the outlet. Then I panicked because the CD player wasn't working. Coffeegal was the voice of reason and calm and very sweetly said that the player was on "radio" and not "CD". Duh. I think she had a great time, lots of laughing going on there!!

The Activities Director was fabulous -- I'm sure she thought I was a loon, but that's okay.

Saturday was dad and himself at the house... finishing up the door/wall... some good conversation and bonding. Sunday was a late start but a nice breakfast at one of our favorite local breakfast/lunch places (which used to be the DMV and is where I went to get my driver's license), and then Sunday evening was a church singing thing, which started out as a favor and turned into a huge blessing for me. My feelings about my performance basically amounted to: it sounded perfect for God.

Tucson is such a small town -- or, the largest small town you'll ever live in. It is just amazing how people I know come back to me through other people or situations. Make sense of that! One of these gals is the friend who is the connection to the lady who organized the singing thing at this church Sunday night. This gal and I attend the same church. There are lots of things happening within the 'denomination' (I hesitate to use the term but it is the one people understand) that I've been raised in, and I've been feeling unsettled for a long long time. She is feeling unsettled too, probably for different reasons.

And isn't it ultimately between myself and God? And between her and God? But that, I'm afraid, is another post.