something clean happened here

A couple of weeks ago, Jessica over at ABIAT put her closet on a diet.  It seemed like such a good idea! I was jealous! I have a messy closet! I need to get rid of shit!

So, very behind schedule, i present to you: a giant, boring blog about how i am messy.

Now, one might think, based on these photos, that i sent a small child into the closet to wreck it, just so i might compete on the same level as Jessica.  Wrong.  I am a messy messy slob.
There are multiple factors contributing to this mess.  One is that when i moved home, there was no room for my dresser until our roommate moved out - therefore, no room for my clothes. (The space shown in that photo is LITERALLY all of the space i have for clothes.)  Mainly though, it is that having too many clothes, & too little decision-making capacity, i will try on thirty things & then end up with a discard pile i don't touch for the rest of the month.

I started with shoes.  I thought it was going to be a monumental task, judging from the box in my closet, and the fact that i had to brave my scary basement to retrieve another sack of shoes, including this lovely moldy pair.

Not counting slippers, it turns out that i had 33.5 pairs of shoes.  That's right. I had half of a pair.  That lonely heel!  I was disappointed to only rid myself of 34% of my shoes, but then i realized that 22 pairs of shoes ain't bad for a lady!  And, really, how much space does a pair (or seven) of balletesque flats require?

With shoes out of the way, that left only a mountain of everything else to comb through.

It was actually less of a mountain, & more of a mountain range - stretching through three rooms, possibly visible from outer space.  It contained such jewels as:

- My gi for a martial arts class that i attended for one month. 
- A hideous sweater that i have owned since i was five & refuse to get rid of, despite it being my beau's most hated article of clothing ever (now i keep it, not only because it is warm, but also because i am spiteful.)
- And my beat-up denim jacket from my punkier days that i can acknowledge that i will never wear again, but cannot bear to part with all the same.
I did not get rid of any of those items.
Hardest thing to get rid of that i actually did: Long, pleated, pastel, plaid, wool skirt.  I love you wool skirt!  But, in three years, i have maybe worn it twice.  It was perfect in every way.  Except that i could never find the right color/length/texture of shirt or shoes or tights to match it.  However! So perfect was it that i didn't even get a chance to take a picture of it before Lauren snatched it away, off to a land where it will be worn & appreciated more frequently.
I guess i should rephrase.  That skirt was the article that i got rid of that i wanted to the least.  But, it was not actually hard to part with, in that it was a perfect example of why i had to get rid of so much stuff!  Nice in so many ways, but if i rarely/never wear it it has to go.  And, more importantly, if it only goes with one specific article of clothing, then i don't need it! No unitaskers in the closet!!

Twelve hours later, i had rid myself of only 28% of my wardrobe!

But, i am not disappointed. I think i had more of an organizational issue than a hoarding problem. And! There is an entire drawer in there that doesn't even have clothes in it anymore!  Besides, i had gotten rid of a large number of clothes before i moved away, so thankfully, my problem wasn't nearly as dire as some people's in the first place.  Does this mean i lose? Or was i a winner to start with?

let's go fly a kite (or not.)

Sometimes, cute things happen that i take cute pictures of & then having nothing cute to say about them.  Like the time Lauren & i drove out to the Dorothy Akin Memorial Prairie..

& we wanted to fly the cute kite that a friend had sent me while i was in the Keys.

Sadly, the wind did not care to participate. That previous shot was a fluke.  The rest of the afternoon looked like this:

Which was still pretty cute.

spring is happening. thank god.

A couple of years ago, i planted bulbs in the tiny 'yard' behind our house.  Crocus & tulips mostly.  Those that have survived the low-light, high-traffic location bloom throughout the spring.  They aren't very impressive, there is no color scheme & the still young bulbs do not produce thick stands of blossoms, but i still get excited.  I feel like they are saying, 'You didn't freeze to death! Great job!!'

The bulbs are the only thing that will grow back there.  I am trying (once again) to grow herbs in terra cotta pots.  My plan is to buy several of each & hope extra hard.  I only have one basil, & i only bought the curry & thyme plants because they were cute & smelled nice, but i also have two different types of rosemary (which my being excited about makes for pretty boring blogging, obviously.)

I do not have any pictures of my herbs.  Even the cute ones that smell nice.  I do, however, have picture of the non-food plants in cute containers.  Tropical plants do better than edible plants with the lack of light, so i keep a lot of them around to make me feel better about my other failures.

I plan to donate my greententions, my aspirations of tomatoes & melons & delicious delights, to my friends whose yards are more hospitable.  Like my friend who accompanied me to the nursery & fell in love with the lemon tree.

After a couple coats of gold spray-paint, a layer of moss & violets, i was jealous, but too exhausted to wish i could have fruit trees of my own.

there's no place like home...

This last Thursday evening, i hung out on my back porch with my gurlfriens, drinking box wine, enjoying the weather.  Then, i walked behind the house to see my favorite band play. It made me glad to be home.  In fact, i cannot remember the last time i was so glad to be anywhere.

Elvis Karaoke

Elvis Karaoke
Originally uploaded by Herschell Hershey

This made my day.

o. hai.

We moved to Big Pine, & i got a different (much, much better) job on Bird Island, i even had a truck for a couple of weeks. These are things that happened while i was away. They would have been great to blog about (if by great i mean fun for me & likely boring for you,) but i did not have a computer, & i was just too damned lazy to type anything up on my mobile browser.
Big Pine was great, & my new job was great. But, all great things must come to an end, & now i am living back in Kansas. If you must know (which i guess everyone must, since it is all i am ever asked,) it is freezing. Duh. No joke. Holy cow it is effing freezing. Aside from that, it is really wierd to be back. There is a nice young man who lives in the part of the apartment that was formerly our office, & all of my furniture is still at my parent's house, so it's strange to be both in my own house, & also kind of in someone else's house.
I have been home for about a week now, but haven't actually done anything. I've left the house a couple of times, but haven't looked for a job yet, & haven't unpacked at all. Except for my kitchen.
I suppose it makes me a little old lady, but it was amazing to cook with my own appliances & accoutrement. Who knew how much you would miss a knife? Or vegetable peeler? Oh! To have pots & pans again!! Yep. Nerd.
So overjoyed was i, that last night, i made (what is hopefully) all my dinners for this week. Maybe even a couple of lunches! After prepping five heads of garlic, six onions, four carrots, four potatoes, & six beets, i compiled a pot roast & a beet-pear casserole while making a pot of chicken stock (which also results in a whole cooked chicken!)
Tonight is yoga, so i started the pot roast a couple of hours ago, to be enjoyed in a few more. Hooray!

granma gifts

My family has been flipping their lid because my granma shipped me a package using [GASP] the USPS!  They were certain that it would never arrive, as if you can't send anything across the country without utilizing UPS or FedEx.

Of course, like every other package i've sent or received, it got here within a week.  Obviously, i've been desperately curious: what could she be sending me?!  Especially something that my mom is so concerned that i get? Clothes!!  Which might seem a bit sarcastic, because frankly, who gets excited about clothes from their granma?  Me.  I do, that's who.  Especially when they're clothes that you could not afford to buy for your new job with a 'conservative' dress code.

My granma is awesome.  She's almost seventy, & when she isn't busy raising my youngest set of cousins or keeping an immaculate house, she gardens & paints.  When i was small, & my both of my parents worked in the factory, it was our grandparents house (not that of a strange sitter) where the deep soft memories of my childhood were born.  Green shag carpeting for plastic horses to graze on, grand spirea architecture arching against the pink quartzite fence, yellow wallpaper in my mother's old room.  She taught me to paint, how to use which brushes & the importance of patient diligence.  I remember canning tomatoes, picking wildflowers, harvesting rosehips, elderberries, morels.  I will always know the names of every plant that grows in Kansas, as well as the best way to make a pie crust.  And it was that same voice singing lyrical nursery rhymes, which also cursed like a sailor.  

It was a perfect life, & i'm thankful for it all the time.