Let’s set off a grenade on my desk and see what happens

Devoted blog fans, I apologize for the agonizingly silent two and a half days of silence you have had to endure¹. You poor things! How ever have you survived? What other, tawdry media fare have you had to endure² while I’ve been selfishly living my life without documenting and sharing it with you immediately? How can I make it up to you?

I really can’t, can I. For shame.

I’ve been busy doing non-photogenic things, I guess. Every year around this time, I go through the previous year’s incoming correspondence and decide what to keep and what to toss.  I say “every year” but I really mean, ooops, I haven’t done it since 2006.  I realized why I’d put it off when I came across a stash of cards from friends and colleagues consoling me for the sudden death of my father at the end of ‘07, just two days after Christmas. I guess I just wasn’t in the mood, that year. And then I discovered a cache of letters from an ex I’d thought I’d composted long ago. That prompted a somewhat grismal round of reflection (do you like that word? I invented it.) But additionally, some old battle scars have been throbbing lately from a recent afternoon spent reminiscing with some old work friends I haven’t seen in a while. It was truly delightful to see them, but we couldn’t help but reflect on the circumstances that led us each to quit working there. We’ve basically each been hermits for months on end now. Care for some fries with your post traumatic stress syndrome?

Hey, have I gotten you into the holiday spirit yet? Are you glad you checked in? Awwww, no worries! Despite the occasional emotional hiccups, it’s well worth keeping the house clean, both literally and metaphorically. There is nothing like a good purge and re-org to launch the new year, even when you actually celebrate the new year at Samhain (Hallowe’en, to you non-pagans).  I’m actually relishing all this, despite how completely un-photogenic the whole process is. The only thing is, I’m half way through a bunch of projects, and the result is a freakin’ mess. My desk is a beach awash with the flotsam and jetsam of many wee projects –

• partially-completed Christmas presents and a half-written holiday newsletter. 
• notes from the soprano’s section leader (“p. 62, 1st measure of top system – rhythm re. anticipatory 16th follwing dotted quarter” (wha’….? and so on, for a whole page.)
• the instruction manual and associated random small bits of plastic gewgaws that go with the Garmin Forerunner 205 I just got on whopping discount from Amazon. Mom, I’ll explain what that is later.
• a Reiki manual I’ll be using on my first victims students.
• unfiled receipts and paint chips from the bathroom renovation project
• undated photos sent to me by a friend that I only just now figured out when they were taken (no wedding ring! aha!)
• the safety pins from the corners of the bib for my first half marathon. Oh, and the bib itself.
• paperwork from my all-day orientation at the hospital where I’ll be volunteering as a Reiki person.
• the 2011 planner, champing at the bit. The 2010 planner, growling territorially in response.
• the world famous lunar phase cards, getting ready for their trip through the postal system to a select group of lucky people.

Also, everything in the house, and I do mean everything, including the cats, *cough cough*, is coated with a very fine layer of drywall dust.

Surely I can show you some progress, though, right? OK, here’s one thing. I bit the bullet and decided to support my inner child 100% today, by buying two quarts of “simply violet” paint. That, and your basic off-white, will be the paint colors for the new bathroom.

On the agenda tomorrow:

• Run.
• Do some Reiki on myself and on a far-away friend stuck in the hospital.
• Plow through the Fonseca score and figure out a handful of tricky bits (mostly where the second sopranos veer away from the first sopranos).
• Paint the bathroom, or at least start.
• Clean up a little.
• Document the whole exciting shebang so as to keep you entertained, since I know how much you care.

¹ It has been pointed out to me that I’m redundant here. I’m electing to go with, “it was deliberate”.

²  I am, after all, a fan of “Dodgeball”, and of the The American Dodgeball Association of America.