If you're remotely curious as to where I have vanished to you should head over here and read the posts for reverb10 that I currently have. I'm incredibly behind since most of my writing time is going towards writing papers right now but come Friday afternoon I'm free.

Go To My Tumblr. Now.

So yeah, I haven't been updating here, in case you haven't noticed.
However, I have been updating my Tumblr.  So go there and read it and follow me if you have one.
Lately I've been blogging a bit about switching phones. I ditched my Droid in favor of a regular phone to simplify my life.
Also I'm sure that I'll have school blogs since I am taking Social History of Women 1875-present, Myth and Ancient Religion, Japanese, Visual Media Poetics, and Digital Humanities. I'm really looking forward to this semester, which starts on Monday!
Thanks!

My Desk and Major Change Time

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Originally uploaded by four12leafclover

In case anyone was ever curious what my horribly ridiculous desk looked like here it is. The Flickr page has some stuff tagged.

Ugh, so my summer class begins next week. I mean it isn't a horrible thing but it is at the same time. Two hours a day, four days a per week, ending the first week in August.

After some careful consideration I am changing my major to Media Study. Once I finish that degree I may go back to Computer Science, but this will I will graduate sooner (my Digital Media credits count for something). Since I need to take at least 3 classes with the department before I can be accepted as a major I am taking one of the open ones left for the summer, Pervasive Gaming. I mean it isn't really want I want to do but the sooner I get into the major the better so that I can take the classes that I need, which are restricted to majors only. I hopefully can do that starting in the spring.

I'm also super-excited, due to Mini-Geek and school and life in general I don't really go very far. I haven't left this little area in years, I haven't left the state in about as much time either. In fact since he was born I went to Pennsylvania (the next state over, big deal) once and Canada once (which to Western New Yorkers really doesn't even count as much of anything if you only go to Niagara Falls). I left Western New York a few times. Object of My Affection has suggested a weekend getaway for he and I. I said either very soon before my summer class gets too involved or sometime in August, maybe early September.

Also, congrats to my baby sister who graduates from high school on Friday, making me feel so old. It doesn't feel like she can be doing that. It doesn't feel like it's been long enough since she was mailing me that child-scrawled book while I was away at school in Maine. She posted her prom pictures on Facebook the other day too. Only one girl in their limo work a solid-colored dress, they were quite the colorful group!

Poor Honey and Good Drugs for Me

So Object of My Affection swears that I'm not bad luck but I am starting to question this. He made TWO hospital trips in a matter of days. First on Friday he found out that he has some old person disease despite being under 30 (Which is totally how I am referring to myself from now on. I mean like forever. I will always be "under 30". I'm not "rapidly approaching 30 anymore, nor will I ever approach 30.). Then Sunday night his air conditioner fell on his head while he was sleeping. Why he was sleeping underneath his air conditioner is a bit beyond my understanding. He's okay though, 3 staples, no concussion, and I am assuming a pretty large headache.

Yesterday was dentist trip number 1, for just some fillings. My dentist is amazing. I am terrified of needles. Like I am talking sometimes I sort of pass out a bit. She wrote me a nice prescription and the world was wonderful and I may or may not have dosed off a tiny bit at work the night before (She said take 2 the night before and 2 an hour before but I took 1 at work on lunch. I think.) and had a crazy dream and woke up and kept dreaming. Then I had to verify if my friend was really really talking about making blue balls awareness bracelets or if I was dreaming it. He really was talking about getting some made up.

Mini-Geek heads to the dentist in about an hour and I'm still in lazy bum shorts (but showered!) and he has no pants on and he isn't wearing the shirt that he currently has on out of the house so I suppose I should get going and remedy all of this.

Dealing with the hard stuff

Today Mini-Geek had his pre-k evaluation. He was amazingly enough an angel while she evaluated him, listening and cooperating and being very unMini-Geeklike. That really wasn't the case when she was talking to me, but hey, we can't have everything. I have praised him like crazy, bought him a book, and took him out for ice cream where he promptly misbehaved. Sigh.

I really don't know if I should cry right now. I don't know if I feel horrible or relieved either. I've had some, well I suppose we'll call them, "concerns" about him. My concerns lead me to Asperger's but I'm not a medical professional and it's one of the big things at the moment so you can't help but think about it. My mother also had concerns and she spends a good amount of time with him. Well today my concerns feel fully justified. The woman doing the screening said he is all over the place with skills, some really high, some really low and he is being referred for further testing. ASAP.

So on one hand, yeah it's great, he can possibly get some help and we can both learn ways to deal with everything and hopefully our home will become more peaceful.
On the other, well, I mean something is possibly not fully right with my baby.

But to be totally honest I wouldn't have him any other way. He's smart, he's funny, he's creative and imaginative, and I absolutely love him. Okay, I would not object to fewer meltdowns. Especially public meltdowns.

So we'll see where things take us, they are mailing out paperwork for me to sign and then I will be bringing him in for more testing in the near future.

Did I mention I am taking a summer class on Mondays and Wednesdays for 4 hours per day? And that I need a bunch of dental work done, some cavities filled and a root canal? And that needles and I do not get along at all? Like I am talking I got blood work down and sat there for nearly an hour after because they wouldn't let me leave because I was turning green and white and couldn't really walk. The only good part of this is that due to my intense fear of needles I am getting some stuff to calm me down a bit before I go to the dentist. I am starting to wonder if I just need a permanent anxiety meds prescription with all of this.

Of course Object of My Affection is absolutely wonderful and sweet and I really don't think I could ask for a better person to have there for me. Although I do feel bad that he is sharing all of this with us.

The Beach is Closed for the Season...In June

So yeah, I did not stay off of those blogs. However I took Mini-Geek to the lake this morning and we saw a "pirate ship" and they'll be giving people rides on it soon hopefully and I'm sort of excited and he wants to go. For some very strange reason the beach is still closed "for the season". It's June. It's been unseasonably warm ever since Mother's Day, back when it was horrible because it snowed for Mother's Day and that's pretty crappy. Other than the closed beach we had a lovely time wandering around in the little shops and going out on the newly-opened pier. But yeah, the blogs. How could I want to stay off of them when I find things like this? She just made a super-cute bracelet out of an effing shower curtain ring and some fabric! I mean really, how awesome is that?!

Then I got all bored but too lazy to the leave the computer and do something and too lazy to open up Dreamweaver and Photoshop and do something and too lazy to even play Sims 3 so I took a quiz and it told me so many useful things about myself based upon the colors I really liked and the colors I didn't like. Things like I am currently creative, imaginative, and intellectual, which seems like it'd be far more useful during the school year than the middle of summer when I am on vacation and stuff. I also " have an emotional relation with the environment but really who doesn't right now after the horribleness going on with the oil spill. You'd have to be pretty hardened to not be at least a little bit sad over that.

Ooooh! I also purchased some new cookie cutters today, a shark, a pirate ship, a cute kitty, and a baby. The baby cookie cutter will do double duty, both as a cute treat for my sister's shower and for my friend to eat a baby the safe way.

Fairly Boring, Okay Really Boring

I desperately need to to stay off of these crafting blogs. Browsing them takes up an embarrassingly large amount of time, or at least it did yesterday. But I'm on vacation. Like full-on vacation, vacation. I didn't go anywhere, but no work, no school, and this evening no Mini-Geek even. I tend to get in this mode where I don't want to go anywhere and I just want to sit at home. This evening though I am doing something with The Object of My Affection, I have no clue yet, but we're doing something that involves no Mini-Geek. I suppose I should figure that out. I live in isolated me-land. I don't watch TV, I only started watching stuff on Hulu really in the last year, I never know what movies are even coming out unless I heard someone bring one up. Is a picnic at the lake too lame??

Or I can keep reading these blogs and pregnant sister can hurry up and find out what she's having and I can start making cute girl or boy-themed stuff. She was supposed to find out last week but they had to reschedule.

Cephalopods and the zoo

The other morning I was searching for cuttlefish wallpapers because cuttlefish are pretty much the cutest things ever. I came across a new blog with an entire post on cuttlefish so I am demanding that you go read it and learn exactly the level of awesomeness that these things achieve.

Also because I really like cephalopods in general (which Blogger is telling me is not word) I ordered an octopus necklace the other day. It is absolutely adorable and I am in love.

Today Mini-Geek went to the zoo for the first time since he was a baby. We went with my step mom, siblings, and the, well, we'll call him the object of my affection. I have never seen that child so well-behaved. He was good and quiet and very unlike his usual wild and loud self. Sadly a number of the animals were napping and we didn't get to see them or at least not very well. At one point a little girl was chattering away next to him and my step mom suggested that he talk to her. He said "I don't have anything to talk to her about." A few minutes later he turned to tell her that the polar bear went into the water but she was already gone. He also decided that he did not want to really hold any of my family's hands, just the object of my affection's hand. If he realized that he was holding someone else's hand he would let go and find him instead. My stuffed animal-fearing son also had little interest in most of the stuff in the gift shop. He ended up with a T-Rex mask, which he then wore and roared at my family.

Preparing for the worst, hoping for the best

This picture is a bit old, but I haven't posted very often for quite some time now. Early this year I was shopping online for Mini-Geek's Easter outfit (I told you this picture was from awhile ago, I don't even have that car anymore.) and I was attempting to ask him for his opinion on some clothes. I don't know why I expected a reasonabe opinion from a 4 year old boy who wants to spend his entire life in shorts, hoodies, and skateboarding shoes, but I thought I would try. He promptly proclaimed everything "ugly and disgusting". I tried a new site, still no good. We were on Old Navy's site and freaked when he saw this hat and decided he "needed it". Then we found the glasses, those became a sudden necessity as well. We're seriously talking life or death here. Months later he still wears them at least on occasion, which is pretty impressive for his short attention span.

I'm starting to get nervous. On the 10th of next month we're going to the school for pre-k screening. She said they could do it in the fall if I did not care if I was there or if I wanted to be there or I had any concerns then they could do it over the summer. Well to be totally honest I do have some concerns. I'm not entirely sure that everything is right in Mini-Geek world. In some areas he is ahead on development, he seems like he is a pretty smart kid, and everything looks great. But in some areas I am not so sure. He still can't pedal a bike, he got his first bike over two years ago, he has very frequent meltdowns, he won't even try to draw or paint anything concrete, everything is still scribbles and swirls, and there's just so many little things but when I add them up they worry me. I found this chart. His drawings are still in the 2 year old stage. He is nearly 4 1/2. He just recently started to enjoy coloring, up until last week coloring was a very rare activity for him. There's a ton of other things that are small concerns but when added up have me a bit worried. Maybe it's nothing but it is far better to address these things now rather than have a big problem later. And really, look at that sweet sleeping boy, how could anything be wrong with anything so perfectly beautiful?

Under Construction

This blog is slowly making a few changes. The header will be different, but what's there is there for now. If things look a bit wonky until I figure out exactly what I want (and who knows when that will be) you have been warned.

Random Mish-Mash

I'm free now, Internets! Just work and Mini-Geek to worry about until August 30th! Then it's back to no sleep and Japanese homework every single school day because apparently they like to do that to us in a class that is already every day. However this upcoming semester should be far better. Some pretty great things have been happening in my personal life, I'm not quite ready to share them with everyone just yet, maybe soon, we'll see.

I took Mini-Geek for Pre-K registration last week. Oh what fun that was. He was wearing a giant wood beaded necklace that we made and a hot pink glittery Barbie bracelet. He threw a bit of a tantrum over only being able to have one piece of chocolate and then another when we got outside and we didn't have time for him to play on the playground. Also when I got to the front of the line I saw him walking up with one of the people watching the kids in the play area, he had to go potty. Fortunately we were able to just jump back to the front when we returned.

I got some lovely Gerbera Daisies in a purple teacup flower pot from Mini-Geek for Mother's Day. Let's hope that I don't kill them because I bought some Gerbera daisies before and I killed them despite the fact that I'm usually pretty decent about not killing plants. Well other than Edward but he deserved to die because I named him Edward because he thought it would be a good idea to sparkle in the sun.

Currently I have a few small plans for the summer, Memorial Day weekend I'm going to the zoo with the family. I would like to take Mini-Geek to the Rochester Museum & Science Center because they have a planetarium and we are currently redoing his room in a space theme (Complete with the Laser Stars Projector, which I sometimes steal after he's asleep). And of course I would like to go camping at the place where I grew up camping on the weekends. I'd also like to sleep rather than staying up for 27 hours, sleeping for 2 or 3 and then being up for another 24 or whatever ridiculousness I pulled all semester long. I love sleep. It's wonderful and we've been reconnecting hardcore lately.

Tattoo, Nerdery, Aunthood, and Pre-K. I really should update this thing more

So after being horribly scared of getting a tattoo for years because I am the biggest baby ever I did it. I got a Commodore 64 in memory of my father with his name and birth and death dates on the screen. It was our first computer and a lot of family bonding happened because of that computer and my dad was on the nerdier side and I'm not exactly the least nerdy girl ever. It started as a joke when I suggested it but then the idea grew on me.

I truly must be some sort of masochist. I am signed up for 17 credits this fall. And I just might have one of the nerdiest schedules ever. I am taking Probability Theory, Digital Systems, Data Structures, and Japanese. The Japanese is because I want a class that will make up for the total bombing of calculus and my friend was majoring in it until he decided that one does not need to go to school and he says he'll help me and then he and another co-worker and I can have top secret conversations in Japanese and it'll be super-awesome.

However, the summer is all mine.

I also recently found out that I am going to be an aunt! I'm super-excited since there haven't been any babies in my family since Mini-Geek, who will be attending Pre-K this coming fall. That is, until we get kicked out of Pre-K because he has informed me that if he has to learn with paper he will rip up the paper because for some reason or another learning with paper is a very bad thing.

It's March 18th.

April 26th is the last day of classes.

It can't come soon enough.

As if that isn't enough I am planning on having Mini-Geek screened for some things soon. I really hope that it is nothing.

I also bought a new car. It is shiny and blue and had mud all over the side before the odometer hit 100 miles.

And I want to make a new blog because, really, eff this name. I'm more than a mother and I'm not "just another" anything. After a few changes have been made in my life I am regaining my confidence and just overall admitting how entirely awesome I truly am. So if anyone still reads this stay-tuned for a new blog. But not right now, right now I am going to go read some cell bio and in a couple of hours I will sleep for a few hours, work for 10.5 hours, and then head to campus where I will be for 8 hours, although on my break I may go make a Target run since the LP is too ghetto for a Target and all we have is one of the nastiest Walmarts in Western New York, a Bon-Ton attached to a now-closed tiny mall (not even a food court), and lots of bad for you food places and I need a collection of items (cat food, boxes and boxes of pomegranate fruit leather, cat litter, and who knows what else, yes I am trying to obtain crazy cat lady status but I need more cats first).

LULZ 69th POST GUYZ

The title is me fighting this whole aging thing here. Next month is my super-awesome special birthday. You know, the one where you turn the age that's the same as the date? Which would be great if my birthday wasn't March 27th. I'm going to be freaking 27. It sounds dangerously close to 30. Think about that for a minute. I mean I barely feel like I can call myself a "20-something" anymore. It's like I'm moving into this new grouping, the "nearly 30 set" or something. My one friend is declaring herself 21 again this year. I wouldn't mind just being 26 again at this point.

I'm seeing the nearly-30 problems begin, namely the slowing metabolism and inability to go through live on astoundingly small amounts of sleep. Everyone says to my school full-time + work full-time + parenting in the amount of time left that I'm "young and can handle it". Sure, I can handle 3 hours of sleep at best all effing week long. Right. I'm not young now. I'm "nearly 30". Well I will be in a month and a half. A night of some fun and drinking has me thinking about the pointless calories I just ingested and severely lacking in energy the entire next day instead of just into the early afternoon, and I didn't even drink that much. (Yes on very rare occasions I do get out a bit.) I may or may not have walked into McDonald's, declared to the fine people in attendance with me that I did not want any of the lovely food but two juice boxes sounded just delightful. And that may not have been in those exact words. But those two juice boxes were delicious.

Taking Delight in the Little Things

Today I was showering and noticed something different but I couldn't figure out what was making this shower any different from yesterday's. Then it occurred to me, yesterday afternoon I put up a new curtain after my friend broke my blinds and I threw a blanket over the bathroom window temporarily (a month or two because I suck, also it wasn't like some Looney Toons thing or anything like that). This new curtain only covers the bottom half of my window because the top has privacy blurry stuff on it. Why only the top has privacy stuff on the glass is beyond me. I just live here. But for the first time in awhile there was a more substantial amount of natural light coming through the window, making the water seem clearer. There isn't much natural light because we're in the middle of a days long snow storm that seems like it will never end and makes it appear as though the roads never get plowed rather than the rare plowing that they get. I don't know the last time I saw any road out my window and I live on a fairly busy road in this "city". Visibility has not been good at any point in time in the last couple of days. My car, however, is clear because I'm at the right end of the row and it's super windy. It's amusing to look at the line out my (now curtained) bathroom window, the other end has plenty of snow and each car a bit less of the evil stuff as you go down the line.

Anyways, for some reason sunlight (or barely there natural light) and running water have always just given me this all around good feeling. I absolutely love showers on a sunny day with light coming through the window. Oddly enough as I was thinking about this Mini-Geek was heard asking me why I was having a "good shower". He does strange things like that far too often, interrupting my thoughts with things that following them uncomfortable close.

Step Four: Buckle Down

I am a horrible time-waster. And it seems the more stressed out and busy that I get the more I tend to want to waste time. This past semester is a great example of that. Towards the end I got frustrated. I did not want to study or even do the reading, or pay attention in class. I knew I wouldn't learn the material magically but I began to lose my motivation. I do feel though that getting more of my home into order has the potential to help me get more of my mind in order, thereby making the semester slightly easier to deal with. The more that I have physically organized the more mental clarity I am finding. Unfortunately classes start the week after next.

Quick side note, who the hell drives off without clearing ANY of their car off?! I just looked out the window to see this car with a back window, and the entire passenger side full of snow, as in can't see a speck of clear space, leaving my parking lot.

Back to buckling down. The fact that school will be starting up again soon does not leave me very much time at all to finish this mission. Although the first week or two I won't have that much crap to do. Next weekend I am having Mini-Geek's birthday party since my family will be back from Hawaii (may they have a snowstorm for their return, similar to the one that we're having now) by then.

I need to learn that I do not need to my google reader a zillion times a day and read every single thing on there. The world will not end if I do not see every lolcat posted on icanhascheezburger. XKCD is not a necessary start to any Monday, Wednesday, or Friday morning. I do not need to at least skim through every article that Wired posts. I do, however, need to stay on top of woots. They sometimes sell out.

Step Three: Eat Better

My diet sometimes contains some crap, especially during the school year. I am constantly grabbing this and that out of the vending machine or a slice of pizza on the way to class. I try to make it better things out of the machine, I don't eat chips, they're awful things. I look for granola bars and whatnot. This needs to end. Or rather not continue once the semester starts back up.

I've considered going vegetarian again, but I am not sure yet. I really don't eat much meat and I rarely, if ever, eat red meat.

I eat too much bread, I already know that.

Since break started I've been eating a bit better. I'd like to do even more of our shopping at the little local place, assuring that I buy less frozen food and more fruits and vegetables. I go there some but I'd like to go back to doing most of my shopping there again.

As for the exercise, I think that I broke one of my toes earlier. I apparently developed this problem earlier where I could not walk around without slamming my toes into something. I whacked all 4 smaller toes on my left foot into the Wii Fit board earlier. The second from my left is rather bruised and they hurt like hell still. Super way to start a new year.

Perhaps We Need to Work on Patience

Today won't be another "resolution" or whatever, instead I have an update and a story where I become "that mom".

After the story that I am about to tell you I went through the storage unit downstairs. I ended up donating a literal car full of stuff to the Salvation Army. I mean the trunk, back seat, and front passenger seat were piled up with bags and boxes of things we no longer need or want. I was more than happy to clear some things out of here. Now onto the story.

Yesterday was Mini-Geek's check-up. He was dreading the doctor's and yelled at the idea of going but I figured all would be good, or at least close to it when we got there. I even came prepared with a change of pants and underwear (for him, not me), a granola bar, some fruit leather, a few smnall toys, a drink, and a book. Ha, was I ever wrong!

As soon as we pull into the neighborhood his doctor's is in he begins to argue with me and yell that he does not want to go to the doctor's. I tell him too bad. He gets out of the car, needing a minor amount of assistance because he's fighting it a bit and then begins to actually struggle, I was seriously that mother. The one dragging a screaming and fighting child. I had to pick him up and carry him through the door. He screamed and cried and yelled while we waited, fortunately he was in the morning's first bunch of patients. Never in my life have I been so freaking thankful for an 8:45 appointment. They called his name and I felt so relieved.

I again had to carry him through the door and into the exam room, where he continued to scream. The nurse was a very sweet and nice woman however she told me that if he does not calm down enough to weigh and measure him we would have to reschedule, as though he'll be so much better next time. I explained to him that if he did not calm down this will take far longer and we may have to come back another day and that she wanted to see how big he's getting and if he's getting bigger than my brother. He agreed and then went nearly catatonic, not talking, staring straight ahead with these blank eyes. Whatever, he was quiet. The nurse did her thing and asked him to strip down. Again the screaming began.

While we waited we read If You Give a Moose a Muffin three times, he wanted to listen so he'd stop every once in awhile and then begin the screaming yet again. I offered him toys, he ate the fruit leather, screaming between bites, he drank his milk, screaming between sips. He was quiet for a bit when we played with a Cars magnetic set my step mom had given him for Christmas.

When we got out the to the car I was telling him how disappointed I was in and blah, blah, blah (which is pretty much how it sounded to him I'm sure) and asked him why he didn't like the doctor's so much.

"Because it takes too long"

Step Two: Exercise

This past semester I gained some serious weight. Not just a couple of whiny pounds. Not like 30 pounds, but more than I'd like. I started off doing so well but a lot happened and the exercising didn't very often. One of my good friends thinks that a lot of it was stress. I was probably more stressed than I've ever been these past few months.

Again, this semester I'll have a bit more time so hopefully I can make some changes here with a bit more ease.

The last couple of weeks I've been on the Wii Fit pretty regularly and adding in my yoga DVD nearly every day, sometimes managing both the morning and night sections, and my evil exercise ball DVD with the woman who says awful peppy work out like things in that irritating voice.

I don't get why I don't do yoga more. I feel amazing after I am done, physically and mentally. Being all stretchy is super-fun. And this woman doesn't mess around when it comes to the morning one, she makes sure that you sweat by the time that it's over. I miss yoga classes at school. Naturally they're full for spring so that's sort of out of the question.

I know that once classes begin again I won't get as much exercise time in, but I would really like it if I could at least bother to do it a little bit this time around for the entire semester.

As far as Decluttering goes, rather than finishing this post yesterday I spent a bunch of time going through one of the hall closets. I cleaned out an insane amount of junk, both to donate and to trash. I just felt so much better taking that one small step that I cannot wait to drop off Mini-Geek with his grandma and get to work on today's project, either my bedroom closets or the basement storage!

Step One: Declutter

A new year is rapidly coming up and I'm preparing to make changes in my life. They are things I've been wanting to do for a little bit now but I have been putting off because I took on far too much this semester and then I was doing the whole Christmas thing and now I have time to relax. If I get on it I'll write a post a day for each of things I want to change.

I was reading a post the other day and it further enforced that I want to declutter my life, starting with my physical home. I have too much stuff. Some of it has no point. I'm a pack rat. I have a Jones Soda Co bottle because it has a hysterical cat picture on it sitting on my desk, somewhere around here I have a cheesy little trinket box that I have had for well-over 10 years, probably closer to 15 than 10 for reasons I really do not understand. I realize that with a 4 year old (as of yesterday!) and being a student "stuff" can't be avoided. Papers will occasionally overtake my desk. Toys will migrate throughout the house. However there is far more than I need to be in control of that I am not. I have a basement storage unit that is full of stuff, most of which I don't need or use anymore. Having a child and pretty much wanting another one, eventually, doesn't help. But I do need to remember that when that "eventually" comes I will be in a different position than I am in now. I will have more disposable income than I currently do, heck I have more now than I did when I had my son. Getting rid of things like the giant plastic high chair is really not that big of a deal. Toys do not need to be kept. Ever. I mean aside from a few special ones. Maybe. Clothes that I do not wear need to go.

I just have too much meaningless stuff.

I also have a nasty habit of not putting the more used stuff back where it goes. I often find I have a pile of text books, papers, and whatnot on the floor by my desk. Piles of hoodies find themselves throughout my home. (It's really more than cold enough that I should be wearing an actual coat by now. I think I'm holding out until it gets down to at least 12 at night so it doesn't seem so cold or something.) Wii games and DVDs don't get put away. Some mess is just more familiar to me I think. I grew up in a good-sized family. It's a big family by most American standards now. I had 3 sisters and a brother, my sisters are considerably younger than me (they're technically my half sisters). A mess here and there was completely unavoidable. Sure the toys got picked up the evenings and everything, but there was nearly always a pile of school papers and drawings and mail somewhere. The bedrooms were nearly never all spotless at once.

I also spent a lot of time with my packrat grandma, even living with her for a few years when my parents first split. I miss her very much and loved her dearly but when she passed away stepping into that basement truly made me realize she had a bit of a problem. She died in 2005. There were Brand Names catalogs from the 1980s in the basement. There were school papers from my father. There was tax stuff from much, much farther back than necessary. She also had this habit of writing notes to herself. There were little pieces of paper everywhere, tucked away just waiting to be discovered. We found stacks of paintings of people in the garage. She had once said she didn't know who they were, they came from her father's house.

I don't want that to be me. So decluttering, here I come.