status report

Today is the one week anniversary of this project, and I must say I'm feeling mighty invigorated.

Granted, the only measurable progress I have made toward revamping the space around me is:

1. Wearing a dressy outfit to work. (Once. Today I am wearing jeans with a hole in them. But I did put blue painter's tape on the hole from the inside. That's totally a Real Simple solution, right?)
2. Buying eight throw pillows, only two of which are covered and therefore in use.
3. Actually going to pilates (but not going to the gym...does this count as progress?)

Update on the "dress for the project you want" front:
The big event that fell into my lap on the day of the pencil skirt has subsequently fallen out of my lap. Due to factors outside my control (namely: those in power scheduling the event for either study week or finals week, during which all rooms are booked as either study or exam spaces), the event's location has moved to the co-sponsor's university. I suspect I will still be in charge of some if not all aspects of it. And perhaps this will be a nice challenge. But I fear that some lucky assistant downtown will instead get all the pencil-skirt glory. We shall see.

Redecorating re-invigoration:
I can't thank Husband enough for being so supportive of this project. He's really excited about revamping our living space, getting rid of old, useless items, and creating a comfortable space we enjoy being in. He knows better than anyone else how much I've been floundering and searching for a sense of purpose. Is redecorating my purpose? Um, probably not. Redecorating generally requires spending some amount of money, and Husband and I aren't the keenest on doing a ton of that. But sitting and looking at spherical decorative items with which to fill our crystal coffee table bowls (oh the joys of getting married--people buy you items made of crystal!) and showing authentic interest and enthusiasm about it? A man who does that is a keeper.

Even if it means he likes these:

save-on-crafts.com

Weird, after we didn't buy the squirrel pillow. But that would have been too many squirrels.

Physical fitness:
I went to a pilates class at my local yoga studio on Sunday and felt both physically invigorated (after lapsing in my gym attendance for an embarrassing amount of time), but I also still feel pain. Laughing hurts, and I like to laugh. I blame this equally on the fact that I had not done instructed pilates in months (although I have done several DVD-instructed workouts) and the fact that the instructor was a sub who did not spend enough time getting us into neutral pelvis. After that much time away, I needed more time to get myself into a comfortable neutral pelvis position. I'll try again next week, hopefully with the regular instructor. And maybe with an even lighter breakfast.

Creative fitness:
I am proud to report that I have done a chunk of writing on my "novel," which, at 20ish pages is nothing more than a few embarrassingly brief chapters. I have been working on this project on and off for more than ten years, since I was a daydreaming high school junior who just wanted to write down her daydreams. It has evolved into the next great YA sensation, with no supernatural elements save the absurdity of the writing at times. I brought it to a creative writing workshop a couple years back and was encouraged by the instructor's praise of the voice--an essential element of good YA writing--but I've had significant trouble both a.) moving the plot along and b.) doing much more than rewriting the beginning over and over and over. But in the last week I have written pretty steadily, while ignoring how terrible I think certain sections are. I have moved forward two whole days in fiction-time. I think I have successfully failed in describing the heroine, which can be challenging in first-person narration. She may need to stare at herself in the mirror.

Please note that I once finished this novel in an earlier, terribly written form. It was 300 pages long. And entertainingly terrible.

Tomorrow I'm going to a disability studies panel, and it feels great to get my brain fired up on those issues again. 

So that's this week. I have a post in the work about area rugs that is going to blow your socks off. And does anyone want to hear about marbles? Because we've looked at so many online marble stores we may be losing ours.