The Visible Woman...July 24, 2003

The house and yard are all tidy...because the mess is all in my office. Well, not really. But it's a mess all right.

A lot of getting tidy enough and organized enough to have a party is finding the place to concentrate the mess. In our house one of those places is my office, aka dog jail, aka nerd central.

The dog has to hang out somewhere. And you doubt your guests will be wanting to surf the WEB during the entertaining party. So the dog, the nerd stuff and the mess in one room seems like a good idea. Forrest's office has to be a dressing room so it had to be a little tidier.

Actually, we discarded a lot of stuff, too. Garbage cans full. Recycling sacks...many of them. Curbside mall got rid of tons. And I have a bag of thrift store stuff in the car. My friend calls this 'outsizing.' I like it. (She also offers this term for layoffs...particularly when they affect you.)

Thursday, July 24, 2003

A Journal from Austin, Texas. A Project of LBFFP Stealth Publishing.
food	reading	writing	time	exercise	health and mood

the mess	concentrating the mess The house and yard are all tidy...because the mess is all in my office. Well, not really. But it's a mess all right. A lot of getting tidy enough and organized enough to have a party is finding the place to concentrate the mess. In our house one of those places is my office, aka dog jail, aka nerd central. The dog has to hang out somewhere. And you doubt your guests will be wanting to surf the WEB during the entertaining party. So the dog, the nerd stuff and the mess in one room seems like a good idea. Forrest's office has to be a dressing room so it had to be a little tidier. Actually, we discarded a lot of stuff, too. Garbage cans full. Recycling sacks...many of them. Curbside mall got rid of tons. And I have a bag of thrift store stuff in the car. My friend calls this 'outsizing.' I like it. (She also offers this term for layoffs...particularly when they affect you.)
JUST TYPING Definitely need to control. The newspapers. The other paper files. The things that need to be filed. The things that need to be recycled. Just as soon as we've had this party. For now concentrate the mess.
		Food Diary. About ten strawberries. About two ounces of cheddar cheese. Some white wine. Some red wine. Some little Mexican appetizers with cactus shoots, fish and stuff. Some chips and salsa. Carne asada (natural beef, though) with a mole enchilada, cactus shoots, black beans and guacamole.
		Time flies.... Sometimes people get in the way of progress. Literally or by chatting. Still I felt my time was better used today.

		Reading. Read a few sections of newspapers. Read the Mary Gordon novellas on the bike.
		This weekend I'm going to write. Or else straighten up the house after the party. Or sleep.
		Exercise Fifteen minutes on exercise bike. Upper body (chest, back, shoulders) exercises. Ab work. Fifteen minutes on the bike.
		Feel a little anxious about things today. I think it was the combo of dealing with an e-mail problem, a neighbor's loose dog and a dead blue jay...all at once. Or maybe it was the logistics of the party. But it will be fine. Really.