I spent the better part of New Year’s Day organizing. It’s a pipedream I often indulge in at the beginning of a new year. Get your life in order, Chrissie. Things are in disarray. There’s clutter. There’s no space for creating, for laying out stuff to see what’s there when you need to examine manuscripts for editing and revision. Which I desperately need to do over the next few months. The current great organization project actually began on New Year’s Eve. I anticipate it carrying through this first weekend of the New Year, at least, because it’s my 22nd anniversary with Russ and he has to work. (He was off for it last week, but I had covid and couldn’t do anything, but that’s a whole different story.) So, I’ll be looking for things to do to occupy myself this weekend and there’s still plenty to do in the office.
So far, I’ve carted out a pink plastic tote of Scentsy paperwork and products that I won’t be using once I quit in the next month or two, as well as a big blue IKEA bag of sundry Scentsy products that have been sitting around – samples, cases, storage trays, etc. I acquired a CD player from Russ to go with the turntable here in the office because the CD player in my bedroom, the one Mom communicated with me on when she died over five years ago, won’t play CD’s, anymore. I haven’t quite brought myself to throw it out and need to; it’s broken, but it’s the last way we talked; it feels a little wrong to just throw it away right now. But this is how clutter and crap overrun my space, and I also know that, so I am torn on the matter. Besides that, the big trashcan out back is almost full. Maybe Russ can make it fit if I ask him…
I’ve trashed countless papers and unfilled notebooks that were started, but had things ripped out over the years. I like a new notebook for new projects and tend not to go back to those other notebooks. So I’m trying to start with a clean slate. It won’t last, but I’m seizing the moment while it has hit me to get rid of some of this stuff. My next move needs to be to thin out the genealogy notebooks on the bookshelves. There are several that are things I’ve never used and likely won’t ever. I rarely play with genealogy now and there’s no one to pass it down to. There are additionally two rolling cabinets of genealogy paperwork that never got filed. They’re stacked, so they’re not taking up much space. Still, they’re unfinished business in a world where I’m trying to have designated starts and stops.
There’s the business of listing my Scentsy inventory for sale in the next few weeks, too. And then, there will be taxes to get in order for 2023. All while I’m supposed to be getting the short story collection in order. My beta readers pooped out weeks and weeks ago, so I’m forging ahead with that project on my own and hoping for the best. I still have about sixteen stories to go for edits and revisions, just trying to think like someone else reading my work, not thinking like myself as the author, which I suppose makes me a little schizophrenic, if I can pull it off. I don’t know if I should hope for that or not. Yet, I must, if this little collection stands a chance of becoming a published reality this year. So, I worked for a couple of hours on that yesterday, too, and trying to identify themes that connect the stories, etc. Some of my favorite stories really don’t connect, and I’m finally ready to admit that and let them be set aside for another project, for another time.
So, this is how I spent New Year’s Day. Trying to put my life on a course where I find some semblance of order and balance. A universe where I take the reins with my writing and forge ahead, eyes on the prize. There are worse ways to spend a day. At least I had my sense of smell in the afternoon, and a great sound system at my back while I was working the day away.
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