Pickles & Dimes

My newish haircut has many layers I don’t remember requesting, so it closely resembles a mullet if I don’t spend time on it, much to my lazy chagrin. As a result, I’ve been trying to curl it more often. The first time I did, it was HORRIBLE. Just awful. I could not have looked worse if I tried. I had no idea what went wrong, so I resorted to watching online tutorials — on how to curl my hair. Now it looks great until my stupid, fine, limp, straight hair decides it’s too weak to hold a curl, so even if I leave home feeling and looking good, I always return home defeated and disheveled:

We have a queen-sized bed and lately it’s been feeling a little cramped. I’ve even been waking up with numb body parts (today I woke up, got out of bed and almost fell to the floor because my entire left leg was asleep). I think maybe it has a little something to do with this:

I didn’t really make any resolutions this year, thanks to a recently discovered character flaw: If I write something down, I achieve it.

This might not seem like a flaw, but trust me, it is.

Last year I wrote down a bunch of things I wanted to do in a little book, each task accompanied by a charming little checkbox I could mark upon completion with a self-satisfied, “DONE.”

And that worked — for awhile. January 2011 blurred by in a flurry of New Year Productiveness. Call 401(k) dude: check. Make doctor’s appointment: check. Organize closets: Check. Back up computer files: CHECK.

But as I got rid of the easy, quick stuff, my list began to serve as less of a reminder of how I was kicking butt and more of how I was Failing To Do Things. I had written down tasks that couldn’t be performed until the weather warmed up or I had acquired large chunks of money or free time. So they just sat there on the list, bothering me with their unchecked-off-ness.

It got the point where I was stressing out over the things I couldn’t do. They were on the list — they must be achieved!

That’s going to change this year.

There are still things I want to accomplish, naturally. I’m just not going to document them and plan them down to every last detail. And I’m not going to feel the impending, self-imposed deadlines looming over me.

Basically, I’m going to spend less time planning and more time doing. And because I’m never going to have all the free time I keep waiting for, I’m going to do whatever I can each day to work toward my goals.

I’m taking a cue from Swistle’s drop in the bucket method.

Each day, I’m going to do one small thing.

For example, in 2012, I want to get fit.

So yesterday, I ran 4.35 miles.

One small thing.

I’ve been dithering over getting a wireless router for months. Today I finished researching my options and decided on which one to buy.

One small thing.

I need to go through my filing cabinet and shred all the pieces of unnecessary paper. Instead of doing it all in one miserable, dealing-with-a-teeny-paper-shredder swoop, I’m going to bring 2-3 folders into work (where we have a HUGE shredding bin) each day until I’m done.

One small thing.

I have a scarf that’s ¾ finished that I’ve been avoiding for weeks, waiting for the perfect afternoon of free time to finish it. That’s never going to happen. But if I do a few rows a night, I’ll be done in a week.

One small thing.

I want to eat better and be more mindful of what I’m putting on my plate.

Yesterday I had an apple with my sandwich instead of my usual chips.

One small thing.

I can accomplish so many things if I stop focusing on ALL the things that need to be done and just start with one small thing.

So here’s to a big 2012.

Pandora and Spotify. In case you don’t know this, I’m a little behind the times. My last job meant I got interrupted a thousmillion times a day, so listening to music? HAHAHHAHHAHA – no. At my current job though, the only person who calls me on the phone is Jason and everyone at the office uses IM instead of coming over to my desk, which is sort of odd but also highly awesome. I used to schlep my iPod back and forth to work until I finally realized, oh yeah – Internet! I prefer Pandora for when I want to discover new music or listen to specific artists, and Spotify for when I want to listen to specific songs.

Minute Maid Pomegranate-Blueberry juice. Ohmygod. If I ever have to stop drinking Mountain Dew, I will replace it with this juice. It’s crazy good, and I have to silently remind myself that “big girls don’t chug from the container” whenever I have this. I discovered it while we were on vacation in Phoenix; they were giving away bottles of it outside Chase Stadium, and I probably spent the rest of the evening annoying Jason in our hotel room by exclaiming, “This stuff is AWESOME! I hope they have it in Minnesota!” every 37 seconds. (Spoiler: They do.)

Pinterest. Whenever I try to explain it to people I think would enjoy it, I always do a terrible job: “It’s like a giant bulletin board where you pin all the things you like from the Internet in one place.” Then they ask what kind of stuff I mean, and I have to tell them my boards have things like bacon recipes, knitted zombie hats and tips for surviving the apocalypse.

Charming Charlie. Necklaces! Organized by color! All under $20! It’s a good thing I bought six more jewelry hooks for my Jewelry Wall™. (I’ll have to provide pictures at some point because seriously, the Jewelry Wall is a work of art. If you are insane for necklaces and sort things by color like me, that is.)

That there is a very good chance Sunny is mentally deficient. The cat is insane. INSANE. She routinely hops up in the space between our basement ceiling and upstairs floor, and travels god-knows-where while meowing loudly. She also cannot be trusted in the kitchen AT ALL if you are cooking, for if you turn your back for ONE SECOND she is either on the countertop trying to lick food off the plates or ON THE HOT STOVETOP trying to lick food out of the pots and pans. She will also steal Abby’s food, Shorty’s food and anything she perceives to be food (lint, bugs, pieces of litter). Sometimes I have to put her in a room and close the door so we can watch a movie in peace, because she starts begging for food at 8:30 and we don’t feed the cats until 9:30. The angriest I get with her is when we get home late and feed her at 1 a.m. or something. The cats get fed again at 5 a.m. so you’d think she’d be happy until then, but NO. The last time I fed her at 1 a.m., she woke me up again at 3 a.m. GRAH.

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I don’t know if you guys like it when people list their favorite posts of the year (I do), but I’m going to anyway, mostly for myself. To remind myself that I used to write a lot more often (and better).

January: Where I’m already sick of winter two weeks into the new year
February: Where Jason got into a car accident
March: (This month was a doozy, so I chose two.) Where I got in a car accident and then got bit by a dog and Where Jason had the hiccups for 55 hours
April: Where Shorty got attacked
May: Where I had $1,400 stolen from me
June: Where I’m from
July: Where I finally broke free from a job I hated
August: Where Jason nearly got into a fight
September: Where we went to the State Fair
October: Where I nearly passed out at work
November: Where we discovered kitty piddle and bug barf
December: Where I plan my revenge on rude people

We still don’t have snow here in Minnesota. That is JUST FINE with me and the longer we go without it, the less I feel like knifing someone. But somehow, I’m just not feeling the Christmas spirit as much this year. I don’t know why it is, but this month has just been…blah when it comes to the overexuberant holiday excitement I feel I’m supposed to have. Things are fine, don’t get me wrong; it just feels like this month is something to endure rather than enjoy. Maybe because there’s just a ton of things going on and I feel like there’s no break. Who knows? Anyway, here are some things I am enjoying this time of year.

Pinterest. If I drew a pie chart detailing how I spend my free time, 99% of it would be due to Pinterest. I love that site. It’s great for recipes and pinning gift ideas – everything’s all in one place. (You can find me there as pickles & dimes.)

Oreo Truffles. I finally made a batch because we were having company over. The good news is that our guests brought a plate full of holiday cookies they had made, which included some much prettier Oreo Truffles. The bad news is that I have a TON of Oreo Truffles left over. (Actually, that’s not bad news – the real bad news is that Jason won’t let me eat the rest of them.)

New fish. We finally have new fish in our aquarium. This is how thorough we were: we BOILED the gravel when we cleaned out the tank. The rocks were various shades of blue and when we boiled them, the water turned blood red. God knows what caused that – besides seven years of goldfish poop and decomposing fish flakes, that is. After waiting a good 4-5 weeks for the tank to cycle, we had our water tested and finally got the go-ahead to restock the tank. Instead of dealing with stupid, filthy goldfish again, we decided on male guppies. It’s been challenging, because every week we pick out four fish to add and after a few days, one inevitably dies. But we’re now up to 14 guppies (we can have 16) and two awesomely creepy catfish (an albino and one that looks like a maze was drawn on him). Some of the fish have been in the tank for a good month with no problems, so we’re not sure why we seem to lose one a week. Our next big hurdle is to do a water change and see how they react, but after that, we should be golden. If all else fails, we’ll shelve the fish tank and buy a TV to put in its place. Win-win.

Shorty’s tree. We have a miniature fake tree that we never know what to do with. The last few years, we put it near Shorty’s blanket and decorated it with one red bulb so it resembles the Charlie Brown tree.

(What? You don’t have MMA action figures decorating your bookshelves? I pity you.)

Charming Charlie’s. I discovered this great necklace/accessory place after complimenting coworker after coworker on their jewelry. Today, I finally mustered up the courage to ask another coworker if she wanted to go check it out. Wow. Everything in this place is sorted by color, which pleases the OCD in me to no end. At one point, I had five necklaces in my hand, but managed to limit myself to two. Most of the jewelry was priced at $14.97, $12.97 or $9.97 – perfect. The funny thing is, I kept picking up a certain necklace, discarding it, and then picking that same necklace up later in a different section. After I picked it up for a third time, I figured I better buy it.

End of year lists. I love these because I’m so out of touch with pop culture. I like seeing the top books, movies, music and TV shows so I know what I’ve missed.

What are you enjoying right now?