Saturday, April 29, 2006

My horoscope said

that Mars in Cancer would give me all kinds of energy. And it did.

I ripped out the wooden platform beneath the non-functional outdoor shower. It came out very easily and didn't fall apart, but I had to send my Helper Dogs into the house to do it - I was using the crowbar to rip it at one end, got it loosened up to lift out in one piece, and Murphy was STANDING on it watching. The dog does not respond to screams of profanity, either. He's heard it all his life, he's like a canine longshoreman by now.

I planted three tomato plants and one jalapeno pepper. (I'm sure there's a way to put a tilde on that n, but I don't know how.) I took a shower and went to Lowe's and found a double-blossom peach hibiscus to fill the space left when one of the three plants my husband put in years ago died in a freeze and never came back. (The other two died back but grew back fine, the third was never heard from again.) I went to Publix. And I came home, planted the hibiscus (after removing Murphy from the hole I'd dug - damn that dog is nosy) and decided to tackle my closet. It's been bothering me for a while. Mars is the planet of closet purges, apparently.

Goodbye to the 90s office wear lingering in dark corners in the back. I have not worked in a downtown law office in fourteen years and God willing, I never will again. And if I did I'd have to buy clothes that were from this century.

And Goodbye to various Christmas party outfits that look tres dated. Goodbye to pleated pants, ill-fitting shirts, and every other fashion mistake I've made in the past few years, but held onto because damn, they cost good money. This is not a valid reason to hold onto shit you don't wear or use. It was also very revealing in that a significant portion of what I gave away was black - not "widow wear" - I never went in for that - but conservative office and cocktail party attire. Except for a couple of really nice but wildly out of style blue suits, it was all black, red, and neutrals. Time to fill the closet again, with casual color and fun things. Yeah, I could have had a garage sale, but I loathe the damn things, so I dropped 5 bags of stuff at Goodwill. My closet now contains only clothing purchased in this millenia, with the exception of the down coat I have had for about 12 years, and the leather jacket (ditto) because they are useful and don't go out of style. After weeding out all the 90s law firm stuff my closet has a lot more color.

There's still more to do, it is not a gloriously organized space by any means, but it's better. Damn, I'm tired. But it was so worth it - I knocked out several Things That Have Been Bugging Me in one day.

I think next weekend I may have to treat myself to a trip here. And Yay for Sunday Hours! So though I won't be going to MDS&W sniffles bravely maybe I can treat myself to a local binge. Hmmm, if I calculate what it would have cost me to go to Maryland, just about anything I drop at Chez Cas will be a mere pittance in comparison, right? Right???

5 comments:

Catherine said...

Damn! Work with me here!

Debi said...

When you're there ask Carla to see the the Blue Heron Cotton in Hibiscus...it's the exact shade of your bushes!

Bess said...

Right!! And MS&W will be waiting for you next year.

Woah how I remember one year, not too long ago, thinking "God! It's all mud - everything in my closet is mud colored."

I still do look best in brown, but there is COLOR now in the closet too. Hooray for a few things that work instead of a lot of stuff that is merely a museum to the last decade.

geogrrl said...

TOTALLY justifiable *wink*.

Sounds like a productive day to me.

I like a lot of colour, but I also need to be conservative, so I compromise with slacks, skirts, and jackets in neutrals like black, grey, and taupe. I go wild on blouse/shirt colours.

dragon knitter said...

i love color. i dont' work in an industry that requires a lot of dressing up (i've been known to wear pj bottoms to work (they were only worn for pants, dammit!)), so i don't have a ton of dressy anything. however, the one suit i have is plum colored. yes, i said plum colored. i hate black suits, or blue suits. i live for bright vibrant color!

and any excuse to purchase fiber is ok with me. i ahd a couple of friends who had given up purchasing yarn for lent, and had ended up buying a wheel. i told her roving didn't count towards her lenten goal, because it's not yarn! granted it will be yarn eventually, but still, it's not yarn!