MY LIFE - JANUARY

Monday, January 22, 2001

I'm finally making an attempt at cleaning up my room a little bit. It's not that I expect to ever have any guests over or anything like that, I just can't stand looking at my room when it's a mess. I've noticed a couple things while going through some stuff and cleaning up.

I obviously developed my mom's knack for saving things. I do this all the time and with everything I do. I've found coupons that expired last summer that I was evidently going to use, but never got around to. I always do that with coupons too. I'll save one because I think I'll be using it soon, then I'll never use it. I still have the gift certificates that were given to me when I left my old store last November. I haven't used a single one of those either.

I save all my paycheck stubs, all the invoices from stuff I bought, all the notes on things I've paid, and all the cards that I've been given by everyone up until this point. These are all in a safe box that's suddenly not quite as large as I thought it was. I also have all my bank statements in there as well so it's quite crowded and I may need to buy a safe or something if I keep this up.

All my calendars from last year are still up, with December being the month.

I have newspapers up here from three months ago all the way up to today's. Most of them I've read, but the most recent ones I haven't and probably won't just yet. I just haven't gotten around to it just yet.

I have each Newsweek and Sports Illustrated (including swimsuit issues) that I've received since I first subscribed. I also have a SI from a few years ago that my dad gave me that profiled a Cleveland Cavalier that's no longer with the team now. I really don't need them or should at least put them in one of the many attic spaces, but the boxes are too heavy now.

I have pens, markers, and pencils that I don't know how I got sitting in a slot near my bed. I have a gumball machine filled with crunchy M&M's that have to be at least a year old. Maybe I should throw those out, huh?

I have clothes in my closet that I haven't worn for two years, yet I keep them for some strange reason. I'd be better off giving them to the salvation army or something like that, but I keep forgetting I have them. I have t-shirts that I think I might wear that I'll never wear along with long-sleeve and other types of clothes.

I have all sorts of junk lying around that I'm not sure how it got up here. Like the white piece of ribbon that Morgue likes to try and kill every chance he gets.

I have a VCR that doesn't work sitting in my closet. I have the packaging for my new VCR sitting in my closet. I have God-knows-what sitting in my closet. I have a trivia book on football from when I was around eight years old sitting somewhere in my room.

You get the basic idea. I'm like my mom in that I will keep everything I get unless I absolutely have to throw it away. This isn't like this woman I saw on tv a year ago who kept everything she came in contact with, including garbage, food, I mean everything. Her house did not have a floor because she had so much stuff. They tried to help her throw things away, but she kept finding a reason for keeping it. It was sad. I'm not that bad.

Case in point: while I do keep most of the e-mails I get from people I talk to, I do go through and regularly delete those that are completely unimportant. Why would I keep the old ones anyway? It's because I like to. Besides, you never know when I might get quizzed on something and need to look something up if I don't know the answer. But you never heard me say that.

Anyhow, I did get some garbage tossed out of my room and managed to finally get the place vacuumed of all the cat fur laying around. I think that's been half my problem. The other half is the fur all over my blankets and sheets, so I need to get those washed soon too before everything goes to hell with my allergies.

I also need to figure out where all my socks went again. It seems that just a month ago I could go a week and a half without needing to wash any socks because I had plenty. Now, I barely have enough to go through a week which makes missing my regular laundry day that much more of a problem. I can get by with undershirts and boxers, but the socks keep coming up short, so either someone's sneaking up here and stealing them or the washer is hungry.

All in all, today was a pretty good day. I got some things done and paid a visit to my old store and caught up with some people there. Apparently it's becoming obvious to those who know me in person that I must have lost weight or something because Kathy (one of the cashiers there) said I looked like I was losing weight. I told her that it couldn't be true. I don't weight a whole lot to begin with, so how is it possible that I could lose weight. I conceded it's possible, but not likely.

I know I'm not eating as much, so maybe I am losing a little weight. Who knows? I certainly don't and I'm not really concerned about it right now. I have more important things to deal with. So I sidestepped the issue and talked to Debbie about some things and caught up with Lenny.

I wasn't surprised to find out that they didn't have a night tech anymore since the person who was taking my place didn't exactly seem like a reliable person, but I wasn't going to say that if it meant delaying my transfer anymore than it already had been. So I kept my mouth shut for the time being.

Lenny tried to talk me into working extra there, but I told him we were already down two people and about to lose another come next week, so it wasn't really likely. It also wouldn't work very well because I work until 5 at the earliest and usually work at least past 7pm, making it near impossible to work at night there. They don't need a night tech at that store anyway though. Debbie told me she's been staying past 5:30 when it's been busy and she's only done it twice in three weeks.

I just kind of laughed at the whole thing. I figured they were going to need help at night again, but I think Lenny should worry more about the front of the store there anyway. It doesn't get overwhelmingly busy at night and I can't help much because I have my store to worry about.

After a while, I said my goodbyes and went on with the rest of the day. As much as I miss the store, I do not want to work there again unless I have to.

All in all, today wasn't bad. I got some things accomplished and managed to have some fun at the same time. I did want to say that I know that almost none of these entries ever seem to run together. What I mean by that is I don't talk about the same things from entry to entry or follow up on what I might say. Part of this is my ability to forget things like that, the other part is not having much of an interest of stringing things together from day to day.

The other day I talked about the internet in a less than positive light. I haven't brought that up again or gone into further detail because I don't feel a need to. What I said that day was how I felt that day and doesn't necessarily mean I feel the same today. My feelings and moods change so much that it's really not worth elaborating on a certain subject sometimes.

I'm sure sometimes it can kind of get on someone's nerves if they're wondering if I still feel the same about something or if they're expecting me to follow up on what I wrote, but I just don't write that way. I'm very scatterbrained and tend to write the first thing that pops in my head. Typically, the first thing that pops in my head has nothing to do with what happened the previous day or days. It usually has to do with something I came across that day unless I otherwise make a note.

That's not to say that I won't follow up on something. It's just not the norm for me. Then again, figuring out what's normal for me has been a battle in itself.

Maybe in a little while I'll figure things out and have things straightened out. Or not. Does it really matter at this point?