Friday, April 27, 2012

Déjà vu

I have been using Google Documents a lot recently. We use it at work, and it reminded me what a handy tool it is. I've started creating the agenda for our Fellowship's Social Action Committee meetings as a Google Doc and now I don't have to remember where I left that slip of paper last month, I can just grab it from my email account and re-edit for the new month. This morning I was going through to see what else I had created, deleting obsolete files and making folders, tidying up my virtual desk. I came across this list of things to do from a few years ago. 


Weekend Household Chores: a list made with all good intentions by yours truly, Nov 2008

  • Install floor transition and last of baseboard in master bedroom
  • Install remaining baseboards in hall & dining area
  • Caulk Living Room
  • Plastic Drawer Unit in Study
  • Attack Master Bedroom closet shelves - what the hell is all that stuff and do we really need it?
  • Organize underbed drawers- Same as closet. Reclaim space!
  • Go through ornaments & tchotchkes - throw stuff out
Done:
  • (Reorganize Rosie's Yarn stash)

We moved out of that flat in February of this year. We left behind spare planks of laminate flooring, and the uninstalled transition strips and baseboards for bedroom and dining area. Just add handyperson for a finished living area.  We did caulk the baseboard/floor join in the living room, though probably not that ambitious weekend. The ornaments and tchotchkes were never thinned out, we do have a little more space for such things but a purge is still in order. After we actually unpack them.

My favourite is "what the hell is all that stuff and do we really need it?"

Amen sister.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Object Permanence

Our bed is positioned in the corner of the room with the foot against the wall so that we can have our dresser and reading lamps at the head of the bed and maximize the remaining floor space. An added bonus is the ability to lounge in bed and look straight out the window at the trees in the back garden. It means I have to clamber over Mr Riveter to get in and out of bed, since we're rather fond of each other the clambering isn't a problem. It also makes changing the bedding a little ungainly, but sometimes having a good view of the space between the wall and the foot of the bed has unexpected payoffs.

The day after moving I could not find my wallet. I had had it when we went out for dinner on moving day, but it wasn't in my handbag, nor on my dresser, nor under the bed, nor any other place I thought to look for it. I had been carefully hanging my handbag on the bedpost so I would not lose it's contents in the chaos of the move. Whoops.

I had a little cry about the $230 cash that had been in left in my wallet after the movers ended up costing a lot less than expected. I shed an extra tear for the nice wallet itself, a peacock blue fake-leather beaut I had taken a year to hunt down on sale. Then I remembered that I'd tucked my social security card in there for safe keeping and had another little cry. At least my passports were safely in a different pocket of my handbag, so I could identify myself as a citizen as long as nobody minded them still being in my maiden name.

Life moved on. I called banks and credit card companies and told them "I need to change my address and get a card reissued, I lost my wallet, yes it's really me, please don't send the cards to my old address". A smaller replacement wallet was bought to house the replacement cards. I got a replacement driver's license with the new address on it and even received the new Social Security card in time to get paid at my temporary job in March.

On Saturday morning I was making the bed, and as I tucked in the foot of the sheet I noticed sunlight glinting off a mysterious object wedged between the frame and the box springs. I reached down and pulled out...the beloved peacock blue wallet. Right where I'd left it. Sort of.