Wednesday Hodge Podge

1. What is ONE thing or area in your home or life you hope to report is completely organized when 2013 draws to a close? Do you have a plan to make it happen? 

I’m going to get my goals up this week. I have given up on the whole organization thing because I try, I fail, I get depressed; My goal this year is to learn not to care if things are a mess, better for my psyche. Still one thing I can keep organized and I organize it daily to make sure it stays organized is my hard drive. My laptop and 2 extended hard drives are almost “anal retentive” in their organization as are the Mac and its EHD upstairs. It does help me stay organized if I scan and digitize as much as possible!

Believe it or not, my Smash Books also help me stay organized because they give me someplace to keep the things that used to end up all over the house. I can actually enjoy the little mementos I keep because they are in a format where I can find them and look at them, and also put together in a creative way. It’s something else that’s good for my psyche and does its ever so small part in reducing the clutter.


2. What's the worst uniform you've ever had to wear for a job?

I’ve never had to wear a uniform for a job. I did have to wear a WWII army-style outfit for a movie event I did with American Movie Classics when I was at Omnicom. I also wore black pants and a white button-down, server-style, at a 100th episode of a cooking show that was open to the public. I don’t know if those count as “uniforms” but everyone else working the events wore the same thing I did.  I wouldn't call them "worst"anything.


3. What was your last kitchen 'mishap'? This question comes to you courtesy of Betty who blogs over at A Glimpse Into Midlife...everyone go say hi to Betty!

Golly, I have kitchen mishaps all the time LOL. I guess the last big one was a few nights ago David left a burner on under and empty pot all night. I could smell it in the morning and fixed it as soon as I got downstairs. The burner was on warm and the pot was one of the thick ones so no damage was done, but that is something that I worry about all the time and I always double check the burners before I leave the kitchen. The light on our ancient 50s stove is burned out and we have no idea how to get in to change it, so there is no alert when the burners are on. Replacing the stove is on our home improvement list for this year. I’d love to have a Jenn-Air electric cooktop. David wants gas. I’m kinda hoping that eventually his “she cooks more often” and my “no open flames” will meet.


4. How do you protect yourself from other people's negativity?

I have so many challenges of my own and I still maintain a generally optimistic view of life. I try to bring a ray of positivity to people having a negative day but if they are just an outspokenly negative person I just try to avoid them. I =f I can’t avoid them, I ignore them.


5. Who in your family do you most resemble (physically)? If you have children, who do people say they favor? Do you agree? 

I look like my grandmothers. I have Grandma’s eyes and Noni’s smile. My face is overall a little more like Noni and because my aunt favors her mom so much, I look a lot like Auntie.

Rina and Tori were always confused for my kids when we went places. As adults, Tori looks incredibly like her mom but she and I share Noni’s smile. Rina looks like a cross between me and my mom. We all have/had Grandma’s eyes, but there are plenty of photos a Rina and Grams at similar ages that look alike.


6. January 8th is National Bubble Bath Day...will you be celebrating?

I might blow some bubbles, but an actual bubble bath is something I don’t do anymore. (But I don’t need a holiday to blow bubbles!)


7. Some of the 'world's best winter festivals' are - Mardi Gras (New Orleans), Quebec Winter Festival (Canada), Sundance Film Festival (Park City, Utah), Rio Carnivale (Brazil), Sapporo Snow Festival (Japan), Venice Carnival (Italy) and the Harbin Ice Festival (Northern China). Of those listed (and if cost were not a factor) which would you most like to attend and why?

Mardi Gras, but only if I can take Kelly because it’s something she has wanted to do for a long time. Okay, Louisiana is also one of the states I’ve never visited and it’s warm there during Mardi Gras when it’s cold here.


8. Insert your own random thought here.

I’m pretty much all recovered from the flu with the exception is my lower back still hurts more than it did before I was in the hospital. I think that has a lot to do with 4 nights of sleeping on my back. For the first three of them I had to call a nurse for assistance to turn over. The last night I was able to slowly turn myself.

I completed my first week of Project 52 this year, I decided to do it as a 52 and instead of journaling every day, this year I have a weekly topic that I journal about, mention how the week related to the topic and photos where applicable. I have all 52 topics selected (there’s my challenge) and the topic for week one was “healthy.” I figured it would be detox and healthy diet not healthy as in flu shots and the hospital. It won’t be as simple a project as I might have thought!

Here’s the first week 2-pager:

 Credits: Owie by Luv Ewe Designs and Blue Heart Scraps

The layouts were uploaded as big files so you can read them better is you choose.