bloggy blahs

Yup, I've got 'em.  (Again.)  I feel like all of my thoughts are being channeled into book reviews or my new weekly column at Greenbelt Patch (shameless self-promotion? check.), and all other thoughts are put into use by mundane daily tasks or with the act of creating more lists of online work to be done or housecleaning tasks in desperate need of completion.  Basically, I haven't just sat around and thought, with my fingers in contact with the keyboard during the process.

I'm feeling like there really has to be at least one post in between my weekly NPR tributes, so here goes nothing.  Let's see what's going on up there in the old noggin...

• I want to sell/donate/trash half of our belongings.  Well, the kids' belongings, technically.  These kids have so much crap in the form of "toys" that I'm going crazy.  The Huge Bedroom Swap of 2010 is gearing up, with hubby hard at work on Red's new loft bed, and my mind is awash with ideas of how to reorganize and trim down the supplies.  There are too many possibilities that involve the moving of heavy furniture before deciding if it "looks right," which is frustrating (in terms of time and my aching back), but really the biggest obstacle will be getting it done with the kids around.  I'm willing to bet that I could purge a bunch of JAM's stuff without him noticing, but it would have to be in increments, and I'm just not willing to put in that sort of sustained effort.  I want to bring in several empty trash bags and take them out of the room filled with STUFF in just a few hours.  We shall see.

• I have a love-hate relationship with nails.  Not the building kind, but the kind that you grow.  Probably more effortlessly than I do.  I bit my fingernails to disturbing lows for many, many years, and I think I've pretty much kicked that monkey off my back, but my nails simply won't grow.  It takes FOREVER for them to do so, but they just can't get past a tiny length before they rip along the side at some point and tear down low again.  But the thing is, I actually hate how they feel when they do begin to grow.  It feels all weird when I type, and it's more awkward to take out my contacts.  And it's not like I'm going to paint them (other than black, which I would actually like seeing as I'm secretly a bad-ass, and you just never knew it) because A) they're never all the same length due to the individual growing/ripping cycles and B) polish is a pain in the keister.  I can't do it myself, I don't have the time or moola to go somewhere to get it done, and even when I have tried the hour-long process of painting/cleaning off polish from tips and edges of fingers/ repainting due to mess made by cleaning, it's all for naught because the polish is chipped a few hours later.  So, I'm not inclined to put in the girly work to have nice nails, but I end up feeling less feminine with my man-sized hands and weirdo nails.  And don't even get me going about my toenail issues.  Seriously, why am I giving vital brain energy to this topic??  Moving on...

• Fall = Food.  This is a delicious fact, thanks to pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies and all that other stuff that I eat exclusively in the fall.  (Mmmmmm... egg nog.... mmmmmm....)  But guess what?  My fat jeans are uncomfortably snug.  Good lord.  I stepped on the scale the other day because I wasn't already feeling crappy enough and was shocked- SHOCKED I SAY- by the offensive numbers staring back at me.  So, time to literally get my butt in gear, right?  Yeah, but there's that clause in the Seasonal Agreement that says I must use all the cans of pumpkin in my pantry to bake up a storm.  Major dilemma.

• Why don't I have a book in my hands??  Reading has taken a back seat lately to the mundane daily tasks (see bullet 1) of life, and I miss it!  I seem to go through these phases of reading like a maniac to taking weeks to finish a book.  I'd love it if life allowed for a happy medium.  (Medium would be a lovely term in relation to the fat jeans issue discussed above, but let's not go crazy with our wishin' and hopin'.)

• Laundry is stalking me.  It conspires at night and somehow recruits clean clothes from the closet to join its ranks in the baskets.  (Or, let's not kid ourselves, in the piles on our bedroom floor.)  Maybe not, but it is certainly questionable how five people can produce so many items of dirty clothing.  Guess the mundane daily tasks really are taking up an inordinate amount of my thoughts.

• Ho, ho, no more!  Holiday shopping will soon be upon us, and beside the fact that our income hasn't magically tripled in the recent past, I dread the whole damn process because it just means more STUFF coming into the house.  I'm considering the possibility of a family trip in place of "big gifts," and just wrapping up small stocking like items for each of the kids.  Yeah... wonder how that will go over...

• Next month is going to be awesome.  Other than the fact that I have to leave behind the 18-34 age bracket on all future surveys (boo hoo hoo... I love that friggin demographic!), I actually have several non-children events to look forward to.  Going to see my favorite singer, Steven Page, in what will be my virginal trip to the 9:30 Club.  (Yup, lived here for 13 years and never been!)  Heading far, far away with some friends for a Ladies' Weekend (okay, just a couple hours away, but far enough to not hear them crying!!).  And taking hubby to a show that he will immensely enjoy while I enjoy watching him enjoy himself.  Nah, I jest.  I think it will be pretty exciting, if only for the deep voice that I use to say the name of the performers- The Trans-Siberian Orchestra!  (Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!)  (Well, actually, it's a Thursday, Thursday, Thursday night, and we still need a babysitter... any takers?)

Well, that was an insightful trip into my synapses, if only to discover that I don't really have many things of great importance going on up there.  I offer that up as my bloggy confessional as I try to forgive my transgression of not writing much of anything lately. 


Hoping to be back soon with majorly thoughtful thoughts,