The WallPaper Conundrum.

Sometimes ideas don't pan out.

Here's one.

About 10 - 15 years? - a very long time ago - I thought I would like to brighten the living room. We have dark bookcases by the fireplace. As I age, I seem to want things lighter.

Dark bookcase.

So those many, many years ago, I purchased a roll of wallpaper. My thought was I could tack it (not actually plaster it) against the back of the bookshelves and lighten things up a bit.

This was the wallpaper.

I also liked the wallpaper. It was whimsical enough to suit me but yet not distressingly so.

It had this little moon.

And this little star



And this really cool sun.

And this really cool thing, too.

However, this was a two-person project and I could never find any help, so the wallpaper sat in the corner of my office.

For a good decade. Maybe longer than that.

When we cleaned my office, there was the wallpaper in the corner. I took it into the living room and slid it up a couple of shelves to demonstrate to my husband what I wanted to do with it.

The shelving with the wallpaper behind it.

I left it a few days in hopes that it would grow on my husband.

He did not like it.

I took pictures of the wallpaper (see above) and gingerly sat it beside the trash can, as I could not bring myself to throw it away.

I made him do that.

Good idea? Yes? No?

I guess it doesn't matter anymore.

Sunday Stealing: Books

Sunday Stealing


1. Do you prefer hardcover, paperback, or Kindle . . . and why?

A. I prefer a paperback, because I generally don't keep fiction books (I donate them to the library). For nonfiction, which I usually keep, I prefer hardback. For junk books or things to have to read at the doctor's office, I use my Kindle. Lately I have been trying to use it for most fiction simply to keep down clutter. My bookcases are full. But I still prefer a paperback to the Kindle.

2. If I were to own a book shop I would call it . . .

A. CountryDew's Corner

3. My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is . . .

A. Not all those who wander are lost. - J. R. R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings)

4. The author (alive or dead) I would love to have lunch with would be  . . .

A. William Shakespeare, so I could ask him if he really wrote all of those plays or not, and resolve that little mystery.

5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except for the SAS survival guide, it would be . . .

A. The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien.

6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that . . .

A. Didn't cost a small fortune.

7. The smell of an old book reminds me of  . . .

A. That time I went to the UVA library to do research and had an asthma attack so severe I thought I was going to have go to the ER.

8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be . . .

A. Can I just be Wonder Woman from the D. C. comics?

9. The most over-rated book of all time is . . .

A. I don't know about book, but I am not a fan of Barbara Kingsolver, even though everyone in my book club thinks the written word spews from her pen like gold.

10. I hate it when a book . . .

A. Changes from third person to first person (or vice versa) at the very end, and you realize you've been reading from a dead person's point of view the entire time.

__________

I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.

Saturday 9: Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Saturday 9: Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree (1971)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

In memory of David Cassidy, who died on 11/21/17.

1) This song mentions celebrating the holidays in "the new old-fashioned way." What's a holiday tradition that began with you (or your generation)?

A. My brother and I have exchanged presents on Christmas Eve for a very long time. My parents would allow us to open presents from one another before putting us to bed in order to calm us down, I think.

2) The lyrics include dancing, caroling and pumpkin pie. Will you enjoy any of those three between now and year-end?

A. I will listen to the radio and sing in the store. Maybe my arse will jiggle when I hear a merry tune while I push a grocery cart, but I can't say for sure.

3) David Cassidy and The Partridge Family were intensely popular for a short period of time. For example, this song was from the best-selling Christmas album of the 1971 holiday season. Have you added any holiday music to your collection this year?

A. No.

4) In 1971, the official David Cassidy fan club had a membership that exceeded both Elvis' and The Beatles'. Have you ever joined a fan club?

A. I used to be part of the Xena: Warrior Princess fandom which ran amok on the Internet and was, really, the first Internet fandom in many ways (Star Trekkies not included.). But there were no dues or anything.

5) David recalled that his first hero growing up was the Yankees' Mickey Mantle. When you were a little kid, what grown-up did you look up to?

A. Carolyn Keene, who authored the Nancy Drew books. She herself was fiction, but I didn't know it at the time.

6) David was a notoriously bad driver. In 1990, he was sentenced to traffic school for speeding. He was late for the class because he was stopped for speeding en route. Do you have a "lead foot?"

A. My initials are A. J.  What do you think?

7) David's parents divorced when he was only four years old. He and his mom lived with her parents until he was 10. Have you ever lived in an extended, multi-generational household?

A. For a short while my father's grandfather or uncle or somebody like that came to stay with us. We called him Uncle George. I barely remember him and the time. But beyond that, no.

8) In 1971, when David and the Partridge Family were at their height, the US Mint introduced the Eisenhower Silver Dollar. Think of the last thing you bought. Did you pay with cash or plastic or your phone?

A. I used plastic.

9) Random holiday question: Let's talk regifting. Tell us about a time you regifted, or you received a present you suspect was regifted.

A. Sigh. I have no problem with regifting but apparently other people do. I mean, if something is in perfect condition and you don't want it, how is that different from going into say, an antique shop and buying something old for somebody and giving it to them? The biggest mistake of my life was regifting something, and it cost me a valued relationship that I still miss to this day. I had no idea it mattered.  I received 5 cake plates when I married. Nobody needs that many cake plates. I mentioned it to several folks, that I had all of these lovely cake plates. So when someone I loved married the love of his life about six months later, I gave them the very best of the cake plates. Not the worst one, or the one I didn't like, but the very best one. The most beautiful one and the one I deemed the most expensive. When the next holiday rolled around, that person gave me an obviously opened and put back in the box can opener. (I assume they received two can openers for wedding presents.) That person also stopped speaking to me, for the most part, and has barely had anything to do with me since. I got the message. I still don't think I did anything wrong. I gave them something I, a newlywed myself, could never have afforded to purchase that I thought they would enjoy. (And yes, I used the can opener until it died. I strongly suspect the cake plate went into the trash or something, though.) This has never been discussed and I don't suppose it ever will be, but I am sorry that the person let something so insignificant destroy a relationship. Prior to this, we were like siblings.

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I encourage you to visit other participants in Saturday 9 posts and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however.

Thursday Thirteen

Things I did this month . . .

1. I threw out over 500 pounds of stuff that had made its way into my office over the last four years (or more).

2. Ordered Thanksgiving from Kroger instead of cooking a meal. (I will not do this again.)

3. Had my mother-in-law over for said meal.

4. Saw my doctor for a change in prescriptions.

5. Returned to using my light box for mood therapy.

6. Put up the Christmas tree.

7. Discovered that we have, once again, lost an artificial Christmas tree. I am not sure how this happens, especially since we have a small house and a designated place for the Christmas tree when we are done with it, but this is twice we've lost the tree. I am pretty sure my husband throws out the new one with the old one, though he denies it.

8. Hit the 10,000 step mark on my Fitbit a couple of times. Happens infrequently due to my health but yay for me when I make it!

9. For the first time (just yesterday!) I went over 45 minutes of "moderate activity" on my Fitbit.

10. I spent an hour with Amazon's help on chat to try to find out why my Alexa on my Kindle Fire HD 8 wakes me up at 7:03 a.m. when I tell her to set the alarm for 6:30 a.m. (Problem not resolved.) She goes off just fine at 6:25 a.m.

11. Discovered I could listen to classical music prior to going to sleep (from Alexa, who is told to turn off the music in 30 minutes), and not have so many nightmares.

12. Created something I'd been wanting to do for a very long time to give away for Christmas (so I can't say what it is!).

13. Bought myself a new robe on Black Friday.

Sounds like a decent month, eh?

_______

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 528th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

 

Before and After

After I became ill in 2013, my efforts at keeping my office clean, which were already somewhat out of hand, took a turn for the worse.

So much so that the place was really bugging me, and has been for almost two years.

Finally, I asked my husband to help me pitch some things out of here. That was my 34th anniversary present.

We tossed over 450 pounds of crap out of this room. And that doesn't include filing cabinets and drawers, but we will get to those another day.

Here are some before and after shots:

Before. Note that the curtains do not match.
 

The closet, which could not be closed.

A close-up of my desk area.
 

There is a printer under there, somewhere.

A corner.

Bookshelves.

So that was before.  Now?

Cleaned up with matching curtains.

Corner is clearer.



Closet is much straighter and emptier.

And it closes!

No junk in this corner!

Everything is much neater. It is now a place where I can resettle. Before it was still a news reporter's office - but I am no longer a news reporter. Now it is just an office.

Hopefully I can figure out what I want to be when I grow up, and turn this into a different sort of office. Maybe an author's office. Or maybe an adjunct professor's office. Or maybe it will just stay an office, my place to go to be online and hide out from the world. I don't know.

Time will tell. In the meantime, I need to change a few items on the walls. But I must find the right things to put up.

Becoming someone new takes time.

Sunday Stealing: Monday Morning

Sunday Stealing

1. How has your life most benefitted from the Internet? Whether it’s meeting people, cutting business overhead, finding rare collectibles, or simply sharing funny cat pictures, share how the web has made life easier.

A. It has allowed me to work from home, to make money, to connect with people (for good or ill) and to shop. Mostly, though, it is a large time consumption machine and sometimes I wish I didn't have it.

2. How do you deal with negative comments on your blog?

A. If they are not profane or pornographic, I usually leave them. If they are spam, I delete them. If they fall into the first two listed categories, I delete them. If they upset me for some reason, I delete them. Fortunately this does not happen often, except for spam.

3. There’s never enough time, is there? What would you do with an extra three hours today?

A. I have no idea. I am tired enough as it is with just 24 hours in a day.

4. The getaway car is waiting outside – where is it taking you?

A. To the airport so I can fly to Norway.

5. Who was your "arch enemy" in high school? Do you have any enemies today?

A. I don't know that I had an "arch enemy" in high school. I was not one of the popular crowd but I also didn't go around with a chip on my shoulder. My brother can correct me if I am wrong about that. Today, I am sure I have enemies that I do not know about simply from my work with the newspaper - I could not have made 20,000 readers happy all the time. There are people I avoid because they are not nice, but I don't consider them enemies. They're just assholes.

6. You’re giving the keynote address to the graduating seniors of a high school today. What’s your advice to them?

A. The thing that you are most worried about will not be the thing that most interrupts your life. So don't worry. Be happy.

7. Thinking of words of wisdom: What's the worst advice you've ever received?

A. To follow my heart in matters of career.

8. Tell us about the best summer vacation you EVER had.

A. The best vacation I ever had was one year when my husband and I went to Myrtle Beach and for once had money to spend on activities. We were able to go to Ripley's Museum, ride the go-carts, spend time at the Pavilion, and eat out at nice restaurants. We have since had nice vacations but that was the first one where we felt financially stable enough to do the things we wanted without worrying about how to pay for it later.

9. What do you have to have with you when you travel? Why?

A. I have to have a slanted wedge to sleep on, because I can't rest flat on a mattress due to a scar tissue issue in my abdomen.

10. Would you accept $1,000,000 tax free, if it meant you had to leave the country and never come back?

A. Yes. I wouldn't hesitate at all, so long as my husband comes with me.

11. Do you believe the world will be a better, or worse, place 100 years from now?

A. I don't believe the world will be here in 100 years. We will have blown it up. Or maybe the Vogons will have blown it up to make a freeway for alien space traffic.

12. Do you expect to buy a new winter coat this year?

A. No.

13. If you could spend one year in perfect happiness but afterward would remember nothing of the experience, would you do so?

A. Do I get an extra year added on because I don't remember that one I lose? If so, then yes. If not, then no. I spend enough time in a fog as it is.

__________

I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them.