Spring Cleaning

==> Drinking Triple Sec because you just want to finish it up and get the bottle out of the cupboard.

Tackle-It Tuesday

This Tuesday, I'll be tackling: Papers and paperwork!
In this society, one of the banes of existence is the preponderance of papers that threaten to overwhelm our homes and our lives. Even if we just get rid of it, as with junk mail, it still requires some of our resources to look at each piece of paper, evaluate it, and then put it in a recycling container. If the papers are worth keeping, we then expend even more energy deciding how to keep it, and where, and with what other papers. And with bills, bank statements, Christmas newsletters, information from businesses, and more, all building up, it seems as though even good papers become negative when they sap so many of our resources.
Anyway, I'll go through papers that have been in my room, some of them for weeks, some of them as recently arrived as today.
I will also apply for passports for Nathan and me.

My Day

In an effort to keep the blog posts coming and even increasing, I thought I'd start trying to write about minutiae such as what I did today or what I need to do tomorrow.

This was a very busy day, and I accomplished a lot. It made me wonder how anyone handles it when she is working fulltime in addition to being a mom. The errands and appointments must happen miraculously, or perhaps she borrows Hermione's time-turner. I'll find out soon enough, I guess.

After getting up and getting ready (not only myself, but Nathan too, of course), I was prepared to face my day. I went to:

• Doctor's office - Check-up appointments for Nathan and me. The doctor was very encouraging about Nathan's health and development; he is healthy, alert, intelligent, all those things a parent desires to hear. She was also encouraging about my continued breast-feeding. In fact, she is completely pro-lactation, and refuses to take as patients any infants who are not breast-fed. Now, there's someone who puts her money where her mouth is. I am also in decent health, thank you very much.
• Bank - Depositing some checks, and all that happy stuff. One of the checks I deposited was a rebate from State Farm.
• Gas station - Filled my tank for slightly over $30. The price of gas is creeping upward, unfortunately.
• State Farm office - I had to pay a premium for some insurance. I had a question about the bill, so I stopped in to see my friendly State Farm agent (or rather, to see his office manager), had my question answered, and then paid my bill. The premium I paid was actually about a dollar less than the rebate check I had just deposited. If only State Farm would sort out its Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable, there would be much less juggling of paying this versus getting back a portion of that. But their left hand does not seem to know what their right hand is doing.
• Oxnard College Job and Career Center - I drove over to Oxnard to drop off some important paperwork for my county job search program eligibility worker. I'm telling you, the local government is probably single-handedly responsible for the razing of at least one third of the Amazonian rainforest. I don't mind shuffling papers and sending in all my info for them; the county programs are being helpful to me and I appreciate it. However, a lot of times, they get their signals crossed or get caught up in the proverbial red tape. For example, they asked me to send in my completed quarterly report by January 5. But... I didn't even receive the paperwork in the mail until January 5! The mail delivery was probably slowed up due to the holiday and weekend. Technically, the quarterly report was already late by the time I got my hands on the empty form. I've pretty much gotten that one sorted out now, but it's a regular pain.
• Trader Joe's - Grocery shopping! We patronize Trader Joe's because they have, overall, great prices, high quality merchandise, and a corporate philosophy that we can whole-heartedly support. [Speaking of their merchandise, I have stumbled upon a revelation that has transformed my life (being as how I own cats): Silica litter! None of the dust or smell of clay litter, and much less of a mess, as the silica gel crystals do not adhere as much to paws and get scattered around the litter pan. There is also a lot less waste than with regular clay litter. So far, I'm really liking it.] And yes, I brought my own reusable shopping bag in which I carried home my groceries.
• Starbucks - After several hours out and about, doing useful and important things, I decided I needed a little boost and treat as a reward, so I picked up a frappuccino on my home. By the way, Nathan behaved beautifully all day. He is such a darling little boy.

And for tomorrow, my to-do list includes:

• Take my car in to get the engine serviced.
• Go to AAA.
• Take a load of stuff to the storage unit.
• Sort, organize, and file papers.
• Recycle or throw away at least 10 items.
• Do my homework for my career class.
• Make several telephone calls.
• Send a few e-mails.
• Actually get onto Facebook and update and respond to people. I'm so bad about Facebook.
• Two loads of laundry.
• Clean and organize my bookshelf.

Fall Cleaning

I am working on cleaning and organizing stuff (and goodness knows, it's way beyond needed). Thus, I emptied EVERYTHING out of Nathan's diaper bag. This is what I found:

• Four diapers (no surprises there)
• Changing pad (came with the bag)
• Small container of Butt Paste diaper rash ointment (Despite the silly name, this is quite good stuff for diaper rash.)
• Small packet of Huggies Sensitive baby wipes
• Regular container of Huggies Cucumber and Green Tea baby wipes (I swear I am not getting a kickback from Huggies, but I've found that these wipes are the only ones that do not give Nathan a reaction.)
• One burp cloth
• Re-usable Target bag (www.greenbag.info)
• One packet of Sweet-n-Low
• One disposable changing pad
• A pacifier cover (But no pacifier; gotta find that.)
• A rubber-covered baby spoon
• Plastic bag, folded up
• Several napkins
• A tissue
• Packet of spearmint Trident that has seen better days
• Eye drops that expired 10/04 (Huh? Why didn't I throw that out 4 years ago?)
• Six ball-point pens
• One felt-tip pen
• Three Sharpie pens
• A bottle of homeopathic teething relief tablets (No matter what I think of homeopathic "medicine", these, at least, really work.)
• Small tube of Ora-jel (also really works)
• Small container of lotion, obtained from hotel room
• Business card for Kim Lentz, hair designer in Phoenix (Recommended by Bekah Farber, 602-363-1624-- There's some free advertising for ya, Kim!)
• Little brochure on the Five Love Languages
• Granola bar (which I don't really like, but keep in case I need emergency blood sugar boost)
• White onesie (I always keep a spare in the diaper bag, in case we need to change him.)
• Four pairs of baby socks (No wonder the supply in the baby drawer was dwindling...)
• Two small pads of scratch paper (likewise obtained from hotel rooms)
• Box of matches from the Vintage Press restaurant in Visalia
• Two moist towelettes
• Eight sterile alcohol towelettes
• One tube of lip gloss (pink)
• Two sets of keys (still current)
• One bag of sour candy (from Elizabeth)
• Two sets of Fry's VIP rewards cards
• One expired driver license
• One temporary driver license
• Two 3x5 cards
• Two checkbooks
• Paper copy of health insurance card
• Dell packing slip
• Receipt from ob/gyn appointment
• Insurance information sheet from pediatrician
• Tape measure
• Eight cards from friends and family, including three gift cards to various retailers
• $$ in cash
• Lovely blue set of regular polyhedra. (I just like to carry my Platonic solids with me wherever I go.)

Scary, no?

To Do (posted here so I don't forget)

On the docket for today:

• Trip to the yarn store
• Working on some knitting projects

Things to do after the New Year holiday (writing them here so I don't forget):

• Get new AZ driver license
• Sign up for childbirth class w/ Jeff
• Complete our baby registries (I've been putting this off because I HATE to shop)
• Pre-register at hospital where we plan for delivery
• Research for good pediatrician in our insurance network
• Side note: Egad, I'm becoming a responsible adult!!!!!!
• Write thank-you notes for Christmas gifts we received
• Make sure to send out those few remaining Christmas presents I haven't gotten yet to their recipients (again, I'm cutting myself some slack because I just moved; don't make me play the pregnancy card, too)
• Get together with Sharon
• Get together with Bekah
• Put together calendar and contact information
• Notify friends and family of new address and phone #
• Clean, simplify, organize our home
• Get our home set up for Fuzzy's arrival into the outer world
• Contact local school(s) regarding tutoring
• Spend time with Hobbes and Touchy so that they don't get a complex when Fuzzy shows up

Life and virtue

I've been slowly recovering myself and trying to get chores and cleaning done. My mom got me started going through some boxes when she was here visiting, and I've been trying to get up the discipline to continue the task. Last night, I went through one entire box. It was mostly full of Utah stuff-- binders, education manuals, notes for books I'd read or lectures I'd given, even some tracts that we wrote and published in 2000. I saved a bunch of stuff for archival purposes (maybe I'll actually organize and archive it!), and still was able to throw away or recycle c. 25% of the stuff in the box. If this keeps up, I'll be able to get rid of so much stuff, consolidate boxes, streamline and simplify our life... I feel so virtuous!

And speaking of virtue, I watched part of Ben-Hur while I cleaned and sorted last night. I haven't seen that movie since I was 10, and boy does it seem different now. I liked it back then, and I liked it last night, but the general impression was so different! I'm a lot more aware of things like historical context, scripts, acting, life in general... Ben-Hur won a truckload of Oscars in the Awards for 1959, and it really is a good film. The script, despite its Oscar nomination for best writing from previously published material, isn't that good. It contains few beautiful and memorable lines, lacks smoothness, and bears too much of the stiffness of its source material (which problems can be blamed on that material, the reverent novel by Wallace). Sometimes the actors seem to be playing bipedal platitudes, rather than passionate human beings. In my opinion, Charlton Heston, however, turned in a really good performance with the material he was given, even if he seemed too ruggedly old and jaded for his part in the beginning of the film. The direction, sets, costumes, all are very nice but somehow stuffy. It's a good epic, but I wouldn't buy that it is a better movie, qua movie, than other 1959 efforts such as Some Like It Hot.

One thing that caught my attention and made me realize how much my perceptions have changed since fifth grade, is the portrayal of the relationship between Judah and Massala in the early portion of the film. The two young men are so thrilled to see one another, and grasp and touch each other, and gaze into one another's eyes... "It will be just like old times!" It was all kind of... CREEPY. Just what DID they do in those old times? Yeesh. It was like Brokeback Mountain with togas. I wonder if director Wyler was intending to portray that subtext, or whether it was just played for innocence in '59 but seems less innocuous in these morally degenerate times.

Maybe I'll do another box and watch another old movie tonight. Or maybe I'll level my WoW character. The pursuit of virtue is a complicated path.