I’ve been trying so hard lately to get rid of stuff. I have far too many things for one person. Especially one person who only has 2.5 rooms to put them in.

Mom and Dad just tore apart the Media Room (my .5) to fix the plaster walls and ceiling and paint it. It’s a lovely dusky-rose-brown (there’s no name to it - mom bought the paint, got it on the wall, panicked at how dark it was, and mixed in some leftover white and purple from the hallway). I was DETERMINED to not put back everything that was in here, and I think I did a pretty damn good job.

Project DVD: My DVD rack with 150+ movies is now GONE. I took all my movies (minus special boxed sets like Firefly, LotR, etc), bought a CD binder, cut all the covers to fit the CD slots, and transferred everything over.

Project Bookcase: Instead of cramming every last shelf with books, I put up my boxed sets and left room for two pieces of art by local artists. It’s now pretty and makes me happy.

Project Desk: I spent an agonizing hour re-wiring my computer desk area, but the powerbar is now hanging from the back of my desk and there are no wires on the floor. There also are now only three things on my desk: the monitor, the lamp, and five small, useful books with a bookend to hold up the modem and router because they kept falling over.

Project Closet: Mom cleaned out the closet to the degree where Dad could put up shelves. All of my design books plus all of the printer papers (including specialty ones) are now in there. Along with my binder of CDs (a previous project) and my binder of DVDs! I hung up a push-on LED light in there last night and it’s perfect.

Project Shelves: I didn’t put ANY books on the shelves above my desk. I have nearly everything in baskets. My expanding files are labeled and neatly placed. I found a magazine box for $3 and it’s holding loose papers. And I left enough space to put up the red chinese lamp I’ve had dumped in a corner for so long!

Project Filing Cabinet: I actually EMPTIED and REMOVED the filing cabinet that was jammed in the closet. My relevant papers are in the desk drawer; the irrelevant papers are shredded.

I feel lighter. The room definitely looks better (although I still have some debris to clear up today). I have two boxes of things to give away. I found two matured $100 Canada Savings Bonds worth over $160 each at the bottom of a chest. Life is grand!

Despite all that Getting Rid Of Things mantra, I did manage to buy two new things yesterday. I couldn’t help it!

First, a hand-held finger mouse for my Eee PC, which I use mainly while in bed:

It is, unfortunately, pink. Blah. But it works quite well and I don’t have to hurt myself with that freaking trackpad any more!

Second, something I’ve wanted for a long time:

A gorillapod!! I got the wee original one for my tiny Pentax (which fits in an altoid can, by the way! Right now it’s a Runts tin I found at the candy shop in Halifax). I LOVE this thing. As soon as I got it I started attaching it to my steering wheel, the rearview mirror, Laird’s face.. it’s awesome.

When I was seventeen, I twisted my knee. A year or two later, it was scoped and I was in physio. It’s never been well ever since.

Last September/November I was in excruciating pain for about six weeks and could barely walk. I went to a new doctor and had a referral to a different specialist than the first time. The XRay I had a few months ago was inconclusive, so I had an MRI last Wednesday. Yesterday I finally spoke to the orthopedic surgeon about what was wrong and what we’re going to do about it.

The answer to both would be: nothing.

Great.

Well, I can go to physio. I will likely have to do that every day of my life if I’m going to live relatively pain-free. This is basically a lifetime sentence no matter how I look at it. And I am such a bad habit-former I’m worried the sentence is for pain.

To make matters worse, I’ve been doing a lot of research and writing by hand these days, and my shoulder, wrist and fingers are killing me.

And just to add insult to injury, I have an ingrown toenail.

In an attempt to quit with the whining already, I’m off to see Kathy of the IET and Reiki on Monday. I need some centering.

I feel like I want to make jewellery again but I’m not getting the motivation for it. I have ideas and plans and instead I sit on the couch. Today and last night I made a few heart pendants (which sell like crazy, go figure) but my hand is actually killing me, so I’m having trouble doing any more.

I need to sequester myself in with my gemstones and wire and force some productivity, or else the coming season will be a bust. I made a pile of money last year but money just isn’t a great motivator for me. Doing the shows sucked the good out of me, I think. I’m glad I’ll only be doing one this year (OK, maybe two).

I have an amazing project going with my friend Angela, who is a printmaker and bookbinder. We’re making individualized boxes for each of my major neckpieces. The only thing is, between me getting my wisdom teeth out and her making a trip to Halifax and various other schedule conflicts, we haven’t worked on it since the first night, about three or four weeks ago - so that’s in a stall too.

Blah. I’m just blah.

So, er, yeah. I got promoted! No raise just yet, but I did get a bonus in the form of an Eee PC two weeks beforehand, and I’m sure the $$ is coming. Also, they didn’t exactly call it a promotion but that’s what it feels like to me.

They’ve created a Research & Development department, and it’s basically… me. I hired (me! I did the hiring!) someone to replace me for student work and I NO LONGER HAVE ANY STUDENTS. The moment I realized this - about six days ago - I had an amazing rush of adrenaline. I was pretty high for a bit. It means my phone doesn’t ring, I don’t have any whining people to take care of, no more boring (or brain-numbingly bad) assignments to mark, no more chasing grown adults to do their homework, none of it.

My day now goes like this:

Work on project*
Work on different project
Invent new project to work on
Work on original project again
Look up, realize it’s lunch time, eat
Play on the internet to find new ideas
Have more projects added to my list
Get asked for my opinion on any of the above
Work on projects some more
Look up, realize it’s 5:15, and go home!

*said “project” could include: develop new programs, order new books to review, review said books, create visual email signatures for all, learn about guerrilla marketing or SEO (helpful to have in my brain for my own site!), test new software such as webinars or learning management systems, write articles or announcements, figure out new ways of helping the students (without having to actually DO IT), streamline procedures, update the websites, post to a design blog, create new advertising/marketing materials, etc etc etc (PS these are all examples from today only).

IT IS SO PERFECT FOR ME.

This morning I started to count calories, something I’ve never ever ever done (and said I’d never do) in my life. It’s apparently a year of firsts, as I’ve also begun on a treadmill. Turns out I like it better than walking outside in terms of getting exercise (as opposed to fresh air or something to do), because it’s a level, springy surface that has about zero chance of hurting my knee. In fact, the more treadmill I do, the less my knee hurts.

In any case, I was talking about calories. I was at a website that gave what calorie count you’d need to maintain your current weight. Right now it’s 2000. I put in my target(ish) weight and it said to maintain that weight, I’d need to have a net calorie count (ie intake minus exercise) of 1800. So I’m aiming for about that much per day (but I won’t cry if I go over).

Now, there’s no way in hell I’ll be counting every single thing I eat, but I do need to get a handle on portion control, so today I counted everything. Well, everything except vegetables, because I’ll be damned if I count veggies in a number that might make me want to try and eat less. I’ll aim for 1800 a day with a pile of veggies and fruits on top, and if I find that’s not working, I’ll figure out what to cut out of that 1800. Besides, some veggies are negative calories - they burn more calories in self-digestion than they were in the first place.

So I figure I had about 400-500 calories at breakfast (bread + peanut butter + hot chocolate). I’m unsure what to do there, I totally love my toast and pb, but it seems high - but at the same time, I need energy for the day and if I have something else (like cereal or a smoothie) I’m starving by 10:30. Hmm.

For lunch, I had a completely delicious wrap: sundried tomato tortilla, low-fat peppercorn ranch dressing, three leaves of romaine, three thin slices of smoked meat, plus red onion, red and yellow pepper and a handful of sugar snap peas. To DIE for, let me tell you. I’ve been eating the same thing for three days and it just doesn’t get old. Minus veggies, the wrap was about 300 calories (tortilla + meat + ranch), and very fulfilling.

I drink 100% juice, and this week I’m sick so I’m drinking way lots more. Juice is surprisingly full of calories, but it’s helping me be healthy so I don’t care - however, I’ve probably had 200-300 calories from juice today.

For supper I really wanted nachos, but I also needed to make sure I didn’t over-do it. I had about 1100 calories in the day if you count the juice, so I wanted to make supper about a 500 cal deal. I counted the chips as I laid them on the plate (10 multigrain and 20 low-sodium rounds, which was slightly fewer than I normally use = 385 calories!); measured the cheese (1/3 cup = 110 cal) - I debated putting more cheese on and just counting it, but decided to try the smaller amount to see if I liked it; and then I covered it in red onions and red/yellow peppers and nuked it for a few minutes.

Of course you can’t have nachos without salsa and sour cream! Hello! Salsa is 25 cals for 1/4 cup, and fat-free sour cream is 25 cals for 2 tbsp. I didn’t measure but I figure it was another 100 calories for the condiments. Grand total approximately 600 calories, AND it was totally delicious. We’ll see if I’m hungry later! If I am, I think I’m allowed to have a cookie!

I don’t want to be one of those numbers-junkies, but I think I’ll do this for a bit to get a handle on my portion size. I really need to measure and then see and then eat to get a real grasp of how much food I actually need - which is clearly less than I’m currently eating.

Also! My bento-style laptop lunchbox will help! It’s on order (along with a couple of resuable grocery bags which fold up to be this small) and I’m pretty excited to get it. I’m also trolling through the thousands of images on the Flickr Laptop Lunches Pool to get ideas. Some of it doesn’t appeal to me, some of it’s in the “duh” territory, but there are huge amounts of “what a great idea!”s as well. Yay the internets!

I just got me a fantastic deal on an IBM Thinkpad r40. $400 for a laptop, dude! And it’s smoking fast for such a tiny, older machine. I’m typing this from my bedroom. Whee!

It’s really going to be for my studio, so that when I take photos of my jewellery I can look at and edit them - and even update my site shop immediately - instead of taking everything apart and running downstairs and then realizing that I need to take them again and coming back upstairs… this will just be much easier. I’ve got it networked so that I don’t even need to use this hard drive, I can simply put the photos directly in the folder I always put them in, on my desktop downstairs.

Exciting!

It’s black, and I kind of want to get some vinyl decals for it in my “70s circle gayle bird designs” style. Of course, I’ve wanted to get something vinyl for my car for a year now and haven’t done that yet, either. But my car vinyls I want to be all white, and in a pattern I haven’t figured out yet.

The Marconi craft show is next week.. “the big one”, as they call it. I’m a little excited. I think it’s going to go very, very well. This laptop was my pre-present

Anyway. I’m still half awake, and I haven’t plugged this in yet and I really need to head downstairs for breakfast. I really just wanted to post here because I can.

I’m off to the doctor to see the results of the x-rays they took of my knee two weeks ago. I’m not in the excruciating pain I was in for about three weeks, but whenever anybody asks me how my knee is, I say, “weak and frightened.” 

It’s been 13 years since I twisted my knee in a non-accident. It’s time it was fixed.  

Dear Everybody I Love,

The heat wave that’s been plaguing the continent has finally noticed the northeast coast. It’s been 30 degrees and not raining for two whole days in a row! I’m off to swim shortly but I felt like updating.

Life has never been this good, and I only expect it to keep getting better. Work is great (well, you know, for something called “work”); I’ve got time and freedom to innovate products and schemes to make my life and many others’ more productive, plus I’m being truly appreciated for what I do there. It feels good.

Laird and I are still in the stupidly happy phase, grossing out small children and adults alike with our giddy pleasure in each other’s company. We have dozens of dumb in-jokes that make us laugh for hours and which never stop being funny.

I still miss Shauna more than I can write about. It keeps me from calling her sometimes, it hurts too much to talk to her and not be able to hang out. I know that’s stupid and it’s making it worse but I can’t help it.

I’ve also taken it upon myself to seriously learn some real Tarot reading. I’ve dabbled, but my Reflections deck is so gorgeous I just want to be inside it, and this weekend I came across a Tarot Journalling book I’d bought at Little Mysteries last time I was in Halifax. Coincidentally, I also completely cleaned, gutted and organized my studio on the weekend (hence finding books I’d forgotten about!) so I had a lovely clean workspace on which to lay out my cards and really dig into the book. I’ve begun by writing anything that strikes my fancy into a 8.5×5.5 Moleskine notebook I had lying around. The idea in the beginning, for me, is to learn what the cards mean - like, really learn them.

For instance, I had no idea that the numbers actually meant something. I mean, I knew that the individual cards had meaning but I didn’t understand that the meaning came from the numbers plus the suit symbols - the numbers weren’t just a way of organizing the cards at all. And they make sense. A two is all about duality; the 10s are the finish of one cycle and the start of a new one; a three is about losing balance and a four is about regaining it. Making sense is soooo the key to me remembering things.

I’m also using this opportunity to create a more visual journal, something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now. I’ve got my trusty little coloured pencils and I’m drawing symbols and such around the words I write.. hopefully to get much more elaborate and creative as I go. I haven’t drawn anything in ages!

I’m having quite a bit of fun. And now it’s time to buy some BBQ hotdogs and head to the pool!

Love to all

Gayle

I saw/listened to most of this concert last night, and the website tells me the CDs are not for sale.

Aargh.

Laird had a couple of pimples on the back of his neck that he was complaining about, so I offered my Avon Overnight Blemish Treatment. He scoffed at it for not being manly enough, so I trounced out of the room, got a Sharpie, and holding it very still with difficulty (due to the giggles), I did this to it:

Once he stopped laughing, he then agreed to use it. Seeing as it’s 100% acid and all.