writing this entry is one item in my to-do list…

Home at last!  That bus trip was insanely long.

I can’t believe I’m still conscious.  I got home this morning at around 6:30 am.  It is now 9:47 pm.  The dryer is cheerfully juggling my clothes and a steaming cup of tea is nearby.  (Some sort of berry zinger.)

It was nice that on the way home from S’s place, no crazy people latched on to me (a few did on my trip *to* her place).  I think I purposely gave people the stay-away vibe, nose in a book.

Though I did have one seat companion who was absolutely perfect, as seat companions go.  He had his nose in a book, too, and the topic of it so interested me I couldn’t help "eaves-reading" over his shoulder.  We talked a little about it – just enough – before being silently companionable again.  Once, quite instinctively, when I saw a rainbow outside, I said, "Rainbow!" and pointed.  He looked appreciatively.  Then looked at me, a little amused.  "Er, I’m 2 years old," I said … He smiled.  Back to our books.

The visit with S and her family deserves about a thousand entries in itself.  But right now I feel like recording This Moment.

In which the possibilities of the coming year are all swirling around me, still fluid, not set; and I am all excitement as I autumn-clean my apartment (I am much better at autumn-cleaning than spring-cleaning).  I have the most full schedule yet, and I’m a bit worried about how I will keep going – I literally have no day completely off except Sunday; on the other hand I’m looking forward to a year of slogging, if only because I am eager to pay down more debt, maybe save up for more travel …

"Prosper thou the work of our hands."  I totally get that, as I go around cleaning and putting things in their places, and making bread, and crocheting afghans, and tentatively trying out a new piece at the piano that I want to learn for an as-yet undetermined performance date.

Before I left on this trip, I had about a week of almost nothing scheduled.  The odd final summer lesson here and there, but nothing much.  It gave me a chance to look around and admit that I didn’t like how I was living – eating "stress pizza" too much, letting piles build up all over the place.  I took a lingering walk around my apartment, with scrap paper and a pencil, and wrote down every single chore I could think of for each of the various rooms.  Then I marked which of those chores would be okay left for once a week, and which ones I thought should happen daily.  This was one of those "inner parent" moments.  I said to myself, "Self, if you were your own parent, disciplining yourself, what would you say?"  I had to conclude, "You haven’t, even at this age, really acquired the habit of taking care of your space.  But you want to.  So you’ll have to do it consciously first."

So I made that list, and divvied up the once-a-week chores so that each day of the six work days (I gave myself Sunday off) has three special-to-that-day chores to do.  In total, there are 33 things to check off each day.  Most of these things are the sort that will take less than a minute to do if I really do them every day (eg. tidy the desk, dust the piano).  A few of the things are more involved.  Then I made a chart of 1000 blank spaces, to be coloured in when I do a chore.  Once I fill the whole chart, I am allowed to treat myself to pizza.

(Of course, I COMPLETELY FORGOT THIS today, when I had just come home.  Within hours of getting home, a visitor was coming over for lunch, and I had nothing really ready, so I panicked and ordered a pizza!  Only when I mentioned this to A Curious Mango and heard her reaction "You what?  Why?!" did I remember my pact with myself, and how I had told the Mango to keep me accountable … )

Among the things I have made a daily chore is the checking of messages (cell phone, landline, e-mail) and the returning of all of them immediately.  I have had to admit that this is not my strong point in my work.

So today I spent an agonizing hour or so checking all the messages left in my absence, and returned each and every one of them.  It wasn’t too bad, actually – but I always feel, when I am doing this, that I really ought to be doing something else, like practicing!

Tomorrow my only appointments are going to the gym in the morning, and going to the school to pick up needed materials and to finalize a few things about some new classes I’m teaching.

I am going to sleep really well tonight …