Life Transitions

This past week I feel like I am finally starting to ease back into a real (read: without dissertation) life. It's starting to feel good. In fact, tonight after I put little j to bed I came downstairs and instead of just feeling mentally exhausted and wanting to mindlessly watch L&O (I know totally weird) I went into the kitchen and went to work doing some much needed deep cleaning. I had some music on and the Nats baseball game was on TV (muted). It took me back to my pre-grad school days in Oregon when I would come home from work turn on the Mariners game and go about the evening.

With little j's most excellent help the house is looking pretty good. I have been going room by room and while there is still a lot to do, I feel like I am making some headway. I have to admit that it will be nice to have Big J home to help out a bit.

Little known fact about That Girl: I hate crap. When I say "crap" I mean the papers, little trinkets, and other shit that accumulates when you don't stay on top of it. Now I admit that I am as bad as the next person when it comes to throwing stuff out, but in the past I have been able to cull through on a regular basis. I feel like it's been a year since I've done that. Of course things have piled up. And to make matters worse, or at least more complicated, I live with two people who have trouble throwing things away. For example, little j still had her empty pinata from her birthday that she absolutely refused to get rid of. I snuck it into the garbage yesterday. I know that she'll notice eventually because she has an incredible memory, but I'll deal with it when the time comes. In the meantime I just feel good about getting rid of the clutter.

Speaking of getting rid of things, I have literally hundreds of articles up in my office that I have no idea what to do with. A large majority of the articles are in 3-ring binders, but I have a paper box full that is just hanging out. I really have no clue where they should go. Talk about clutter. Will I ever look at those articles again? Probably not. If I really need them then I can get them from the journals or on-line. I suppose I should keep the articles I used in my dissertation, but I have plenty that I read and didn't use or used in my proposal and then dropped out of the final draft. Maybe we should have a bonfire. I just know that I really don't want to pack those with me when we make our next move.