I had an uneventful week for the most part. I must admit that I truly don't miss the intense drama of work. I sometimes miss having the daily routine, but the stress and drama I am glad to be away from. I can create my own drama if needed and/or wanted. How about you? Does drama rule your world? How do you handle the drama in your life?
A funny story about drama. I go to Jazzercise most days when I'm in Virginia. It is something I truly enjoy and have been a member for over 15 years. I go in the mornings now that I have time and try to attend two classes. One thing about Jazzer babes is that we are territorial. It is almost as if each person that attends owns the space where they dance and heaven help you if you step in their space. Well, with me now attending mornings I am really throwing a kink into the routine of some women. I, too, get in a rut and always go to the same place if no one is there yet. I must say I have never felt so unwelcome because of where I am now standing. I started laughing when I realized what was going on, but I still keep turning up and working out. The ladies are trying to get there earlier to grab their spot and I just laugh and move to another spot. I am always the first one in the parking lot and usually drink my coffee and read until the door opens. The other morning I burst out laughing as I watched a couple of women JUMP out of their cars to get in before me. There is one woman that basically does not even say 'morning' because she is so upset. I am a 'back row' babe - since I created the term years ago, but can move around if needed. I enjoy the workouts and will keep going. The ladies that I disrupted many times stand there and talk vice working out. This is why I think it's funny that they were upset about where I stood. Oh well, life needs to be disrupted once in a while and when I leave this week they can have a peaceful April....LOL! Do you cause drama in your life?
I spent much of this past week cleaning out. As I mentioned previously, I was a little anxious about it, but when I felt a bit of anxiousness I just stopped and did something else. I still have a bit to do in my bedroom, but it's almost done. It will need to be done by Tuesday night as I leave on Wednesday. Funny side story: I can't believe that I had about twenty empty shoe boxes under my bed and a few more in the closets. I thought I had a few for mailing items as they are sturdy, but wow was I surprised when I started pulling them out and there were more and more. They were certainly dusty under there so now I have to wash the linen because of the dust bunnies....LOL! I finally cleaned out the bottom of my closet - believe me that was a day project in itself. I kept two big boxes of gift items - those just in case I need a gift type of things. Well, cleaned all of that out and now down to one box and it's not full. My BFF and I yesterday moved furniture and boxes of items out to the garage. These are the items that will be going to a charity organization. My car is in the driveway until all of the items are picked up as we filled up half the garage. I must admit I am not nearly as anxious as I expected. Are you doing spring cleaning? How does it make you feel?
I am going to mention how hard it is to give items away to charity these days. I could not believe all that we had to go through to donate furniture - had to provide a list of items, a description of items, pictures of these items so they could decide if they would want them, move the furniture out of the house as the organization will not come into the house. We are still not sure if they will take all the items. Basically, the organizations want new and although the majority of items we are giving away are in good shape, they are not new. I could not even give away all the stuffed animals I cleaned because the organizations are afraid of allergies. I told my BFF that if the charity does not take the items, everything goes to the end of the driveway and we'll let the trash people take them. I was on a rant the other day and although I understand that some organizations try to re-sell the items, I was not contacting them, I was contacting local orgs that were trying to set up housing or transitional housing for people. I am so turned off by charitable organizations at this point that I don't know if I will ever donate again.
We did find out this past week that many of our floors have asbestos tiles under all the carpet because our house was built in the early 1970s. Asbestos was not banned until the early 1980s. Any way, this changed our plans for new floors in a way because we are not going to add the expense of having all the tiles pulled and the house tented with the hazardous materials people involved. So instead of what we originally picked out, we are now going with floating floors. The whole reason this project started was to get rid of the tiles in the hallway/kitchen that we did not like from day one. Well, guess what, they will be there for infinity or as long as we own the house and we will not cover them up because it would definitely change the levels of the floors. We were disappointed, but oh well, life moves on and this is not a big deal in the overall scheme of things - we were flexible in our thinking/planning.
I'm headed to Massachusetts this week. Let's hope there is no more shoveling in my future...LOL! I hope to see some friends when there with better weather. It will be good to see my family and give my sister time to spend with her kids. Brian will more than likely need ACL surgery so my sister can be his nurse while I keep an eye on our parents.
Had lunch last week with a dear friend and her daughter. OMG her daughter is almost all grown up (17) - a junior in high school and so smart. She is the most articulate teenager I have run across in years. She held a great conversation with real words and looks you right in the eye during the conversation. She works as a life guard and is the light of her mother's eyes. They have done a couple of college visits and have a few more planned. She explained what she liked about the campus or the courses offered. I have watched her grow up over the years and I could not be more proud of her.
A big shout out - Happy Birthday to my BFF Patti this week. We are having brunch today with a friend and dinner tomorrow with some friends. Always fun to celebrate a birthday.
I am going to leave it here for today. I hope you have a good week. Take care. Chat soon. Marie
"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated." Confucius
"Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them - that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like." Lao Tzu
"Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them." Dalai Lama