The Visible Woman...March 9, 2004

Tuesday, March 9, 2004

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A Journal from Austin, Texas.
A Project of LBFFP Stealth Publishing.

health and mood

just do one thing at a time

I have to face the fact that the house of ten (or is it twenty?) thousand things will not resemble a tidy Better Homes and Gardens show place in a day. A year. Or, perhaps, ever.

I had to do one thing at a time. Deal with this, then that. There was no tension about it today, though. I just did it.

I watched while the guy from ArtWorks hung the mirror. Yep, we acquired a new mirror. It is over six feet high and thirty inches wide and framed in black. Which means that the smaller, oak-framed mirror that FFP had before I married him...will have to find a new home. I went to three housewares stores, too. I got another stainless trash basket for the bedroom. I got a dust mop. I got FFP one of those rubber bath pillows for the tub. I bought a bunch of the bright red plastic boxes that will brighten up the closet and hide T-Shirts and sock collections from Container Store. I bought a new style of hamper for the closet...also bright red. I bought a thing to use to store things under the bed. I bought moth packets. (It's the time of year to put away sweaters here.) It seems I buy lots of organization and maintenance stuff...but I don't get organized and maintained!

It hardly helps, in the posssesion equation, that I discarded two chipped cordial glasses (that I was cleaning up and returning to the bar) and identified a half dozen or so computer cables that were no longer useful to me to discard or put in the garage sale. (Yes, I'm talking about having one.) It doesn't really even things out that I tossed three or four old magazines.

But I tried to calmly review each thing that I touched as I moved around the house, assessing the need for it, now and in the future. Does one keep the 1993 tax return? What sort of cable is this serial to serial thing and why would I ever use it again? I cant' conquer the things as a whole. I must attack each of them. Decide whether it stays with us and where it should go. I have to win this battle one thing at a time. And today I realized this. I tried not to think about the fact that if I were to win the battle in a year and I really had ten thousand things...that I'd have to dispense with over three hundred a day to get things organized in a month!

Looks more like a room...still not with the 'real' bedspread.

JUST TYPING

I pick up a magazine.
This looks interesting.
I might read it.
When?
Where should I put it.
Until then?

Food Diary.

breakfast

nothing

lunch

1 slice provolone
2 slices turkey bacon
a bunch of carrots

snacks

a Dr. Pepper
a couple of barbeque potato chips

a Bloody Mary

some cheese and fruit and two crackers

dinner
[Uchi]

several glasses white wine from South America or somewhere
maguro and goat cheese
toro
mussels
octopus
hama chile
a bite of fried ice cream
[we shared everything]

Today I
- at least had some good raw fish!

Time flies....

The day promised the new mirror and a new bedspread, both to be delivered early afternoon. I got off to the gym and did my thing and got back and fooled around with my continuing organization projects. The mirror came and was hung. SuRu called and said that she was at a Middle School on St. John's working for the election and couldn't get away to get food. I wanted to run my errands to get the rest of my stuff for the room and such so I get together some carrots, Laughing Cow cheese and so buy Thundercloud for a sandwich and some chips and pretzels and a drink and take them to her. Then I run my errands. The bedspread lady (actually she's from Austin Window Fashions) is there when I return and she and FFP have tried the new spread. Looks great. The maid arrives. I try to calmly work around her, never easy. FFP gets a call that his new glasses are ready so we leave early for our 4:30 meeting downtown and stop and get those. We are still early so we stop in The Thistle Bar for a Bloody Mary. After our meeting, we go home to let the dog out and let FFP change clothes. Then we head out to Uchi for our dinner date. We eat for a couple of hours. It's great and we really enjoy the company of the couple we've invited. They are fun and we enjoy talking food (they are restauranteers) and travel.

At home, we turn in and I read a while and then we fall asleep.

Reading.

Newspapers.

The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler. Finished this one. I enjoyed it but I still say that if I'd written it that it would never have been published.

Feeding a Yen [Savoring Local Specialties from Kansas City to Cuzco] by Calvin Trillin. The first chapter, in the words always used on the copyright page, "appeared originally, in different form, in The New Yorker." I actually read it there. But I still enjoyed it.

Taking a respite from WWII to read fiction and food was a good idea, I think.

nothing

Exercise

recumbent bike	1 hr
treadmill
ergonomic rower
water aerobics
chest, shoulder, triceps
leg, back, bicep
lower back
ab exercises	x
stretches	x
walking
tennis

Mood is calm. I feel capable. I feel strong physically, too.

It's a Tangled
Web we weave...these
days of our lives.

One year ago
"We sat outside Jo's for a coffee and I described my CPA who lives, loves, offices and has clients in the neighborhood and she came, as if on cue, across the street with a dog in tow."

Two years ago
"We stopped to read the historical marker. FFP also commented that he used to go to Eastwoods park to sit and think. I think this was my first time to walk through this park. It has a lovely oak tree. One of the branches of it is supported by the branches of a younger tree. That's the sort of thing you only see on the ground."

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