How to Fill a Day that Doesn't Hold an Escape

Every so often my parents very justifiably ask for a day when I don't invade their home in an effort to escape the crazy living realities of my own place of residence.  They need a day off and time to themselves too.  They generally give me a few days notice that on such and such a day, I need to make other plans.

Today is one of those days.

I've learned to make lists.  I spent a vast portion of yesterday jotting things down every few minutes or hours, as one sort of "oh, I should get that done" or other would cross my mind.  The list has far more on it than I can realistically accomplish in a day, but that's kind of the point. 

Options are important on the days when it is harder to escape the place I reside.  On the days where I can't just set up camp somewhere else with ease.

I came home last night and rearranged furniture, too.  The dvd drive on my laptop has been dying a slow death for a while now, and seems to have finally given up entirely.  That was having a serious impact on my ability to watch dvds while reclined on my bed.  I fixed that problem last night with a little bit of rearranging.  I moved my television and dvd player to someplace where I can see them while comfortably reclined.

I hung my map of the world back up last night, too, and began the process of sticking pictures of people I love and pray for up around the map.  I hung that where I can see it from my bed too.  (I spend a lot of my evenings sitting on my bed, propped up against the headboard, especially since I sold my couch and loveseat before my last move.)  One of the things I loved about the home of the friend I stayed with in California was that there were pictures of the important people in her life everywhere in her home.  I hadn't bothered to hang much of my art, or even to get new photos printed since I moved in here.  It was survival mode, and I figured why bother hanging stuff if I wasn't going to be staying?  But, I'm still unemployed, and I still don't know about school, and I can't make decisions about moving until those things are sorted out.  So, I'm going to get pictures printed, and put them up around the map.  I want the people I love around me right now, reminding me that I love and am loved in return.

Other things on my list of possibilities for a day that doesn't contain an easy escape include things like filling out Canadian and American passport paperwork, doing yoga, painting my toenails, attacking a mound of filing of important papers that I've essentially ignored for the last couple of months, just adding papers to the pile, reviewing my latest booksneeze freebie (a dvd this time), working on a new project I've been doing, calling my bank, making a pot of tea, doing some reading, sorting and cleaning and purging, trying a teeth whitening sample I recently ordered, stitching up a hole in something, and sewing on a button, watching some television on dvd, taking some photos of my crazy living situation, doing some exercises from a book I'm reading, and ordering photos to be printed online.

And, I'm going to head out to a store called 10,000 Villages.  It's a fabulous store, and I'm looking for a couple small, colorful, items to bring a larger taste of the world I can't afford to travel to right now, to my living space.  Things that will add life and color and warmth to this odd place that I inhabit.

I told you there was too much to do.  But the options are helpful.  It means I can evaluate what I feel like doing, instead of just having to pick something from a list I'm not excited about, for the sake of keeping busy.

And with that, I'm going to crawl out of bed long enough to grab the muffin I set aside for breakfast, the supplements that need to be swallowed with that breakfast, and then I'll eventually get up and walk to 10,000 Villages, thus getting some exercise in as well! 

I'm off to begin the process of filling a day that doesn't have an easy escape... I'm sure it will be an adventure all it's own!

Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 52

Today's Daily 5:
(an introduction to the daily 5 can be found here)

1. sleeping in sweet smelling, freshly washed sheets last night
2. my unemployment benefits finally started and the first deposit landed in my bank account.  that will be helpful until I find work/find out if I've gotten into school.
3. waking up in my own bed - I'm always for the mental break that staying somewhere else provides, but it really is nice to wake up in my own bed.
4. grilled cheese sandwich made with aged Wisconsin cheddar cheese on whole grain bread.
5. Watching episodes of "Say Yes to the Dress" and "Iron Chef America" while vegging at mom and dad's this afternoon
6. listening and watching as a toddler giggle while jumping in piles of fallen leaves and playing with her mom
7. rearranging some furniture to make life in my crazy living situation slightly more accommodating for the moment.
8. hanging a map of the world back up, and beginning the process of sticking up photos of people I love and pray for all around it
9. working on a project/hobby for a while tonight
10. almond joy bar

A Familiar Feeling

Dana posted this quote from C.S. Lewis the other day.  In it, Lewis describes a feeling I'm finding rather familiar lately.  The pain of renovation is one I'm experiencing, and I found Lewis' description to be profound.  Being made into a palace is a reminder I can use right now, amidst the painful reconstruction.

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised.

But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of — throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself. [Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis]

Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 51

Today's Daily 5:

1. sunshine
2. a day in the mountains with mom's cousin, who I really enjoy
3. hiking up to Grassi Lakes and then appreciating the waterfall on the way back down
4. eating lunch at a tea shop I'd always wanted to eat at
5. driving home the back way
6. Vietnamese for dinner
7. sharing dinner with a long time friend
8. sarcasm and laughter over dinner and a walk and curling up in the basement at mom and dad's to keep talking and laughing
9. praying with a good friend too
10. laughing at an inadvertent discovery that a friend and I who bought the same scarf together were both wearing them in our separate cities today, and both thought of texting the other to tell them, but never quite got to it.  the random coincidence made me giggle.

Mountains

I'm leaving shortly to spend the day in the mountains with my mom's cousin.

Thanks to my lack of a car, I don't get to "my" mountains very often these days.  I'm not sure I've been there at all this summer, actually.

In any case, I'm looking forward to going back, to reclaiming some things that have felt lost or stolen.

To walking in a place I love with a person I enjoy.

It should be a good day.