Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Weekend of Laboring

I certainly made use of my long weekend this time. No relaxing or lolly-gagging for me.  Friday night we had a friend over for dinner; Saturday morning I had my hair done, and did the grocery shopping.  Saturday afternoon, I ran around Maumelle and Little Rock, picking out a paint color for Kirby's room, buying painting supplies, returning something from my shopping trip last weekend, and buying storage bins for all of Kirby's supplies (they've been in a cardboard box since we moved). Sunday, we took Miikka down to the local lake park for a 2 mile walk - the weather was heavenly - and then went to the brand new tennis courts in town to "play" tennis for an hour. We are so very bad and out of practice; the only reason we aren't worse is because we both know how to hold and use racquets! After tennis, I worked on cleaning up Kirby's room in preparation for painting. *Short digression: My desk especially needed the work - I haven't filed anything for about 5 months.  Every time I file, I promise myself that I will file monthly from now on, that I will immediately attach the check to the bill, that I will only keep receipts until they have cleared and I am sure that I will not be returning anything... But every time, I do that for a month or so, then let everything pile up until the pile threatens to take over the entire desk. Thank goodness I haven't ever actually lost anything important that way!  End of digression, back to endless list of stuff I did this weekend, because I know you really want a minute by minute break down.*  We also had a philosophy department get-together that evening.


And then came Monday, the day off.  I spent most of Monday in Kirby's room - vacuuming, moving Kirby to the guest room, spackling holes, sanding the edges of the hideous diamonds on the wall, washing the walls, taping the trim to keep the paint off, and finally, priming the walls. Whew. I haven't painted a room in maybe 15 or 20 years, and then I was only helping my mother. About 6 years ago, Benjamin and I painted the entire outside of my parents' house, but exteriors are very different from interiors.  The paint I am using is a low-VOC paint, which means it has fewer nasty chemicals in it, and hardly smells at all. I chose to use it partly because it is better for the environment, and partly because I am worried about what regular paint might do to Kirby - he is rather delicate.   Anyway, the room is primed, and I should be able to finish the job next weekend.  I am just so pleased that I finally started the project, because I was beginning to doubt that I would ever be able to prod myself into movement and decision. There will be pictures, but not until I make time to take them off the camera.

Of course, there were lots of other things I wanted to get done, but didn't, like washing my car, baking cookies, laundry, vacuuming (apart from Kirby's room)... Benjamin did mop the kitchen floor and clean out the fridge on Saturday, and he spent a long while on Monday working in the backyard, so that is very good. There just wasn't enough time - could I have another few days off?

1 comment:

Candace said...

another couple of days...you would probably handle them the way I am: long hours over paper/computer, a walk, a couple roses trimmed, and then a book or computer again:) Things seem to get done only when there is no time!