Tuesday, January 23, 2007

BEING ON VACATION HAD UNEXPECTED BENEFITS!

I took last week off primarily because, since the short residence of my unexpected (and unwanted) roommate a year ago, my apartment has never seemed to resolve itself into some form of its previous order. My frustration at the perceived disorder (other people didn’t see it but I knew it was there) was complicated by the fact that I was really, really, really exhausted from the emotional upheavals of the past two plus years.

The unexpected benefit was that I hardly turned on my computer during the 9 days of my vacation and only watched the television news a couple of times.

Heck, until last night, I didn’t even know that the Spawn of Satan had announced her candidacy for the presidency. And to be honest, I could have lived without that knowledge for quite a bit longer. I must admit that I am looking forward to Dick Morris' 90-minute film presentation on La Reigna Hillary which is coming to a theatre near us soon. From his description, the lady won't like it much.

I did, however, manage to keep my eye on the Duke LaCrosse persecution being conducted by now former prosecutor Mike Nifong. Can I ask a simple question? WHY DOESN’T THIS FREAKING CASE SIMPLY GO AWAY? The indictments were erroneous, the boys are innocent, Nifong is an idiot and anyone who pursues this case further is an even bigger idiot. Just my opinion.

What did I accomplish, besides getting about 9-10 hours sleep per night? (Accomplishment enough think I!) Well, I organized my pantry closet and that alone will save me a great deal of stress and money in coming months. I cook a lot of tomato based dishes and the disorder in my pantry caused me to be unable to find the stores of tomato products (crushed, whole, diced, stewed, tomato paste, etc.) that I KNEW were there but which were buried amidst the rubble of various kinds of coffee, canned goods, baking supplies, etc., etc. So of course, each time I trundled to the grocery store, I'd buy MORE.

Post-organization, I will not be needing to purchase anything in the tomato line for oh, I don’t know, another 3-6 months! I have sufficient baking supplies, I find, to last me until I’m too old or too fat to care. And the potable and intoxicating liquid supply is quite sufficient for the foreseeable future. I have, apparently, been harboring a secret fear that the world's supply of vodka is going to disappear! That's the only explanation for the 5 bottles in my cupboard!

The bedroom closet is taking a little more time because I’m low on some necessary supplies and also low on the time, interest or energy to weed out the remainder of the clothing that will be going to charity. Everything in my closet MUST be on white hangers, you see, all arranged according to function and color, all hangars pointing the same way and all garments facing toward the bedroom. It’s not that I’m OCD really (although I’m sure I am a tiny little bit) – it’s just that in the morning I’m really not wide awake enough to put together my outfit for the day unless there is a very specific organization plan at work. The spare room closet also needs attention but I need to get a supply of matching storage containers in which to put everything so that I can then easily find the materials stored and also stack them in a tidy and efficient fashion (leaving space for actual clothing of guests to also be hung in the closet).

I also spent a great deal of quality time with Sam and Tim – and that involvement was rewarded by two very contented felines who absolutely LOVED having me at home, although they saw no reason why I should be doing anything other than cuddling one or the other of them – or both of them when the spirit moved Sam to join Tim in a lapsit – on a pretty much nonstop basis. When I did venture forth from the apartment (nail appointment, hair appointment, trip to the library, grocery shopping but not for tomato products), they were MOST incensed and yammered at the front door until I was out of earshot. I did, however, find them curled on my bed upon my return, quite blissfully doing what they usually do in the afternoons – snoozing!

Vacations are a wondrous thing, made more so by reasonably decent (though cold) weather, ignorance of the world’s nuttiness, affectionate felines, and lots and lots of white hangars!

Still – it’s good to get back to normal (or what passes for it in my world).

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