A Walk Through My Day

I said I was going to post about theme music for my life, but I think I might have already posted about that long ago. Did I? Anyone remember? In any case, instead I've spent the day doing daily stuff, as best I could around the heat. We're in a heat wave now. And there's still smoke, although today wasn't bad like it's been, just a bit hazy and most of that seemed to hug the mountains. Which, happily, we could SEE today. So, you SEE, it was much better.

I went to the thrift store and found the rest of the basic pieces for hubby's outfits for the upcoming festival. Yah! (Postscript: He came home and liked the pants I bought for him to cut into shorts so much that he's gonna keep them as pants. So I'll go back tomorrow and buy another pair of black pants to cut into shorts.) I also found a pair of black Dickies in William's size for him to wear for work. Of course I found other goodies for me and the house. The rest of it, maybe I'll have some photos of it tomorrow to show you.

Both the thrift stores now open in town are on one of the two cross streets that I must use to go anywhere else in town. Generally, what happens is I'm on my way somewhere when, passing one or the other thrift store, I spy something intriguing sitting out front (they put furniture and things out there) and I do a U-turn and stop. I'm not usually on my way to the thrift store, except for a rare occasion when I'm looking for something specific (like I will tomorrow).

Today I left the store, bags and car key in hand, only to a complete stop when I realized I couldn't remember where I was originally headed. A geographically larger version of walking into a room in your house and not remembering why, only with a car and streets instead of feet and a hallway. It really bothered me because I didn't want to drive all the way home only to go "Aha!" and have to turn back around and drive off again. I tried to mentally retrace my trip so far but it was a complete blank. Finally I gave up, got in my car and started off when it came to me - I wasn't on my way to anywhere, I was on my way home. Sheesh.

More specifically, I was on my way home from having lunch out with a friend. Which was lovely. Air conditioned. We've both been so busy our weekly dinner date has turned into more of a bi-monthly dinner date. Which is okay I guess, as I've been trying to eat out less for a number of practical reasons. Instead I've been trying to declutter my food storage, making meals out of what's ended up in the back of the freezer and pantry. I'm not being strict about it, I'm adding in cereal, milk, bread, etc. as we need it, but the plan is to eat it all up and start fresh. The problem isn't that there's nothing to eat, there's plenty and I'm making some tasty if rather odd combination meals. The problem is my family sees the spaces I'm creating and think they need to be filled. By them. With junk. GRRRRR. Argh. I tell them not to bring anything into the house. They ignore me. It's not like when the kids were all little and I was in charge of the kitchen. I'm afraid those days disappeared long ago no matter how much I'm trying to reclaim my territory.

This evening I tackled another section of my wardrobe reducing project. Dresses. Unlike the mountain of pants, I've got less of an issue with dresses. I don't buy them because I have so little opportunity to wear them, unless we're talking casual summer dresses. Most of them have come from thrift store finds or a few shopping sessions connected to weddings or travel needs. Still, I'd accumulated a couple dozen dresses. I wasn't worried though, I thought this part would be a cinch since I haven't worn most of them in a long, long while.

I was wrong. It seems the only reason I hadn't been wearing most of them was because they were stuck in the back of the closet. Well, not true. They were just simply stuck in the closet. The closet is so small there is no back of it. All the stuff I was wearing was piled up on top of a chair and boxes in front of the closet so I couldn't see any of it. When I tried on dresses I was sure I didn't want anymore, I found myself looking in the mirror thinking "Oh, how cute!"

I did get rid of four dresses and sent another six or so to the sewing pile to either refashion or use as fabric. One dress I really love I discovered is a squeak too small across the chest. I'm willing to save it and see if it fits in a year. If not, weep, I can get rid of it then. I still have too many dresses left, but there's not one that I couldn't put on and wear immediately, so that's a big improvement. And the boxes in front of the closet are disappearing so I can get to them to wear them.

The project was complicated by the fact that my dogs felt the need to be underfoot for every step of the process. I needed the windows and curtains open (because it's so hot) but the room lights on (so I can see myself in the mirror). I didn't want to flash everyone driving down the street past my bedroom windows, so I kept going into the hallway, no windows, to change clothes, shutting the door to the bedroom each time. The dogs either wanted to follow me back and forth, or if they were too slow to follow me, stood with their noses to the bottom of the other side of the door from me waiting for me to open it, only to get clunked when I did. Rosie is young and fast enough to skidaddle back out of the way quickly, but Buck is old and shaky on his feet and kept getting knocked down. I tried to get him to settle around the corner of the bed where he wouldn't be underfoot, but apparently that was just a little too far away from me, his beloved mistress. What I've done to deserve such devoted clinging, I have no idea. I suspect that all this togetherness doubled the time it took me to finish going through everything. It was reminscent of days long ago, doing housework with the "help" of a toddler or two.

Next I went through vests. I had eight, now I have four. I tried to move on to shirts but the whole shutting and opening of the door dance recommenced and I decided I wasn't up to a second round of The Three Stooges. Instead I went outside to take down and hang up laundry on the clothesline. In the dark. Just like a normal person.

Normal people hang laundry in the dark, right?