The Weekend

Yesterday morning I put up the hummingbird feeder for the first time this year (only five months late!) and within hours, two hummingbirds were fighting over it, which made me glad. I was worried that my not having put up the feeders sooner would have made the little birds unhappy with me--and maybe they are, but they are more interested in focusing on their old hummingbird v. hummingbird feuds, thankfully. I've been hearing their chattery curses outside the door all morning and I love it.

I hadn't put out the feeders because while I was in school, I just couldn't handle any extraneousness. School was it. And even when I was not focused on school, I was still focused on school. I was mostly miserable about it, to be honest. Now that school is out, what?

I have to study for the boards, yes. But also Dave and I are getting the casita sorted out. He got a new desk, which is really cool--it raises to a standing desk at the touch of a button--but that meant rearranging the casita to find a home for it. We had to give away our overstuffed armchair, Chairy. (Luckily, my brother wanted it--or was at least willing to take it.) We shifted the kitchen table into the front room (we only have three rooms, the front room, the kitchen and the bathroom) where it is now my sewing and craft table, and Dave's desk took up the space in the kitchen. (When cleared and covered with a tablecloth, it will be fine to sit at and have dinner.)

Those simple shifts in our environment threw us into a de-cluttering and cleaning mood, so we've spent a few hours each day for the last couple of days doing that stuff. I cleaned the bathroom, my least favorite task (but also the easiest cleaning project in the casita). I went through a section of my school detritus and tossed a bunch out. I cleaned out from under my desk, which had become a nest of papers and such. I reorganized my sewing shelves and, just now, started the Herculean task of dusting the bookshelves. (We have more bookshelves than anything except books, I guess. In our little 513 square foot casita, we have three six foot shelves and two more a little smaller, all jammed with books--not including my textbooks, which are still stacked high on my desk.) We've probably swept three or four times as each round of furniture shifting stirs up new populations of dust bunnies and disgruntled spiders who thought they had found their forever homes behind things.

Dave has done a bunch of stuff. He has been working on de-cluttering stuff that moved with him from his office to home when he switched jobs a few months ago. He's filled a bag of paperwork to be recycled and a trash bag full of who knows what. He's done a lot more and is working his way up to de-cluttering in the closet, which is a task that requires a bravery that I don't possess.

And speaking of not possessing any bravery, poor Gray Kitty is freaking out with all the stuff moving around and all the dust being kicked up. He has been very jumpy and needy and sometimes just goes and warily hangs out near the entrance to his under-the-bed hidey hole. (Right now he's perched on the end of the bed and he jumped when Dave opened the bathroom door, poor thing.)

Later:

Dave and I went out to lunch with my mother, brother and aunt. We had Mexican food. Salty, delicious Mexican food. Then we went by the studio. We haven't been prioritizing the studio at all, and Judi was getting a bit disgruntled (understandable, yes, but school took top billing). Anyway, we filled a bisque kiln with help from Grace and Chris, and I cleaned up and reorganized my own table so that I can start working again.  Grace is going to have a booth in a show next month and I may slide a few things in and see if anything sells.