herculean

this weekend has been packed. my mom came to visit me and we have been doing chores nonstop. let me recap:

friday
arrival. chicken parm. hot cocoa and '27 dresses.' hung out until midnight or so. collapse.

saturday
slept in a bit. breakfast/shower. errand running (wine store, drugstore, jo-ann fabrics, trader joe's). lunch out (flying avocado cafe - LOVE). prepping pants for hemming. stuffed chix breasts for dinner. hot cocoa and 'ratatouille.' early to bed.

sunday
early to rise (mom had been up for hours). cutting patterns for quilted appliance covers. lunch at mari luna with salimah. starbucks. four hours of closet cleaning (looks amazing). four bags of stuff for goodwill. four bags of trash. hot shower. more hemming. bread, cheese, and english breakfast tea for dinner. computer work to prep for tomorrow. sleeeeeepy.

my mom is a champion, plain and simple. she's so generous and helpful with her time and talents. my closet was in desperate need of organization and cleaning and she got me three tubs (two hold purses and one holds photos) and several garment bags and covers. so now all my clothes are protected from dust and tucked away in their proper places. and my cleaning lady comes on tuesday to deal with the rest of the dust and grime. what a relief!

tonight i will sleep like a log. this past week was rough and the one coming up promises more long days and late nights. i'm grateful for exhaustion like this, because it means that i did something worthwhile with my time, and i'm one step farther along in the process of having a more orderly life.

oh, and as a side note: my mom found a 9 of spades behind something in my closet and said to me with concern, 'i hate to tell you this, but you haven't been playing with a full deck.'

ain't that the truth....

in the oven...

...right now are three half chicken breasts that i encrusted with pecans along with some cinnamony butternut squash that are sizzling away, just waiting for me to add fresh spinach (to wilt) and some cranberries scented with orange. then on the stove is fat israeli couscous bathing itself in some olive oil and herbs as it froths away in boiling water. i shall eat this all with some lovely cranberry-apple chutney. dinner: done.

i have one load of laundry in the washer. i'm making progress. the key to my success? ipod blaring augustana and NO TV.

:)

IF i'm good later, i might let myself watch an hour of something before bed. or not.

mouse twitch

my right forearm has been twitching incessantly for the last 3 or 4 days....at work, while i sleep, and at other random times. i'm convinced it's because i've been using my mouse a lot. a lot a lot. either that, or armies of blood cells are getting themselves pumped up for an all-out war. i prefer to think it's the former.

in other news, i slept for the majority of the evening yesterday. i basically came home from work, checked blogs for a bit, and then snuggled into bed for several hours, with occasional interruptions for phone calls, etc. otherwise, i was just sleeping. then, at around 10:30, i got up to chat for a bit and then went back to bed around 12:30 and slept until 7:30 this morning. clearly i was pooped.

in the last 3 hours, i have managed to do all my dishes (several days overdue, to my great dismay), replace my pur filter (i'm a pur girl, not brita), and watch the end of the movie 'singles' while eating leftover shrimp and broccoli from thursday night. good times, people. good times.

i'm in desperate need of groceries. i ran out of bread AND poultry sausage, so yesterday's breakfast at work was a half bowl of cereal dregs. pathetic. but to make up for it, i had delicious sushi at lunch yesterday, compliments of my friend shannon:).

today i do believe i'll chi my hair in preparation for going out to see a play tonight and hang with friends at starbucks afterwards. i've got laundry to do (we'll see about that) and need to do a little dusting and vacuuming. otherwise, it's all about how to get my arm to stop twitching. seriously, i can do without the spasm, thanks. no, really. thanks.

why i love weekends

because i don't want to forget this little detail (so apparently my blog has become a notepad of sorts), last year i went to chesapeake wine company with salimah and my friend mel, and i had a glass of the montelena 2003 cabernet sauvignon - normally 100 bucks a bottle (and 20 dollars a glass), but because i was doing a short flight, my taste was only 2 bucks or something ridiculously amazing like that. in short, that wine was divine.

okay, so onto other things....

i've gotten so much done this weekend, my head is spinning! laundry is nearly complete, vacuum and ALL other necessary items have been procured, grocery shopping (including seriously macked out produce and a few staples from trader joe's) was done before 10 a.m., dusting and vacuuming of living room is ova, and dusting and vacuuming of bedroom is about 50% 100% done. i've also reframed a bunch of photos, called to update my info with my alumni organization for a new book they're compiling, and located and activated a replacement credit card.

dinner tonight will be something light with lots of fruits and veggies, although i'm not quite sure yet what that will be. oh, and within the next hour, i hope to sit down on my couch and watch 'blood diamond,' which i've been wanting to see for awhile now.

i'm going back to work tomorrow feeling like i ACTUALLY got something accomplished. gosh, that's just a nice feeling. last weekend's trip to chicago was amazing, but it totally threw off my chore schedule. lots going on in the next few weeks (including the start of my mba program), so more than ever, i need to stay on top of the logistics. even though they tell you not to sweat the small stuff, if that stuff adds up, it can really kill ya.

on duster, on bissell, on swiffer, on sweeper! okay, that's all the reindeer names i've got for now....

in no particular order

here's all the stuff i have to get done this weekend:

1. return library books (maybe check out a couple of new ones)
2. watch and/or return some movies
3. make a target run (new vacuum, dish drainer, citronella candles)
4. get produce, bread, peanut butter, and dairy (milk and eggs, mostly)
5. vacuum and dust the heck out of my apartment!
6. laundry - lots of it

i plan on hitting target at 8 a.m. tomorrow and then the library before picking salimah up at the light rail.

in other news, i'm contemplating getting a new desk (right now, i use a tabletop, actually) for the start of school. i really don't have enough room to work (partly because i have too much stuff on my desktop) and i cannot be doing schoolwork at my dining room table. ick. of course, i don't have the money for this just now, but it's on my personal wish list. we shall see....

off to clean up before i hang out with my friend nina!

errands, chores, etc.

it's not quite 10 a.m. on sunday morning and already i've been up, had breakfast, and done a big shop at wegman's. (i haven't grocery shopped in awhile, and my supplies were either old or dwindling or both.) i have one more load down in the car of paper products (and maybe some bananas thrown in for good measure) and then i'm going to drop a bag of videos off at goodwill, take 2 bags of trash to the community dump, and come back home to clean, launder clothes, and do work. i intend to watch nothing on television or dvd until i feel i've gotten some things accomplished today.

wish me perseverance....