Baby Steps

Blog soundtrack:

Update to my “The Importance of Doing Nothing” Blog from Yesterday Note:

To those of you who told me that you’d feel guilty doing nothing for a day (err, like Dee!), I have only one thing to say to you.

Do the math.

Okay, I hate doing math, but I like doing my math, because the equations always seem to work out in my favor and support my logic! Amazing how that happens, isn’t it?

Anyway, this is how I calculate there should be NO guilt factor whatsoever for one day of doing nothing. First equation:

Your age x 365 = How Many Days You’ve Been Living, Breathing, and Roaming the Face of Ye Old Earth

I’ll use mine for an example.

365 x 47 = 17155

Now, the way I figure it, you could probably subtract the days of your first six months, because before you learned to crawl or walk, you were basically, what I liked to call, a “baby blob.” You can’t really be too busy during that stage of your life.

So, 17155 – 182.5 = 16925.5

Looking back, I think that during those 16925.5 days, I was probably pretty busy most of the time and doing stuff, like playing with rocks and sticks in the yard, teasing my sister, doing homework, running on the track team, riding a bike, working, taking care of pets and kids, and so on.

Now, it would seem that even if I took one “Nothing” day each month every year, that’s approximately 564 “Nothing” days out of a total 16925.5 days thus far. So, really, you have absolutely nothing to feel guilty about when looking at those busy versus nothing statistics!!!!!!

Okay, on to our Feature Blog…

Given that I’ve been unemployed for 8 months now, you’d think that I would have accomplished a lot. Well, I haven’t. Okay, I’ve done wonderful things like be a full-time Mom and cycle my butt off; however, I had this list of things to do, and on it, it said, "Clean the attic." Of course, over the months, this list has actually morphed into the “to do-to don’t” list.

But, last week, I actually cleaned out one small corner of the attic. See!



And, it took me about 2 hours to do that. Well, in my defense, I get stuck in my attic.

No, there’s no gruesome animated doll named Chuckie holding me captive up there nor is there some skeleton in a rocking chair that I’m paying homage to; it’s the memories that make me get stuck. I sit down for 5 minutes at 2pm, and before I know it, I've relived half my life by 5pm!

So, last week, I got that corner cleaned. During the process, I binned a TV, a TV/VCR combo, two computers, and a monitor. Nathan’s school had a fund-raising recycling drive, and I was glad to pay $35 to get rid of it all!

I started a small “clean the attic” attempt today. And, here are some of the things I found:

A gun. No, I’m not that desperate (yet) that I’m going to hold up my veterinarian to get out of paying for my next $250 bill for general canine and feline maintenance.



This was my Dad’s gun and powder horn. He was a Minute Man. Okay, I’m not that old! That is, he was a re-enactor back in the 60s. Here’s the group he belonged to.

http://www.sudburyminutemen.org/

And here he is.



I found my Mom’s wedding dress, which I wore when I married Nate’s Dad.



And here they are.



Here’s a Marilyn Monroe doll that Bitsy gave me years ago.



Iz saw this and said, “Mom?”
“Yes, Iz?”
“Can I have that?”
“Err, no, Iz. I’m saving it.”
“Can I have it when you’re not saving it anymore, Mom?”
“Yes, Iz.”

I came across baby clothes. Yes, Suzebabe, those are the pink converse high-tops you gave her, and I so hope I live to see the day she's dangling them in the rear view mirror of her first car!



And, then there are my shoes.
What?
How many pairs do I have?
I’m sorry, but I can’t hear you.
Whaaaat?
La-la-la-la-la!



There are my trophies, plaques, and ribbons from high school and college track and volleyball.



And, I found my yearbooks.



The Brandeis one is not so important; I left Brandeis with the only thing I ever loved about it…Bitsy. But, the high school one, well, I loved my time there and especially with all the Lovelies.

Anyway, the attic…it’s all about baby steps.

And, this is what I have to look forward to weeding out.



And, it will get sorted out sooner or later just like my life.

I am trying to find a job. And, as many of you know, I’m also trying to go beyond a job and find a place where I’ll be happy like I never was before. But, today, I realized that the best things in life, those worth waiting for, are only attainable sometimes one baby step at a time. ♥