One of my old high school friends, S, is flying in from Toronto tomorrow. She's always paranoid to take too much time off work, so she'll only be staying for the weekend and leaving on Monday. Even though her visit will be quite brief, it'll still be really great to see her.
Of course, with her visit only one sleep away, I'm embarrassed to admit that I've barely touched the spare bedroom which always seems to morph from a cozy little space into a storage room the very moment any guest leaves our house.
As I type this, I know that my art easel is still standing proudly on display in the middle of the spare room, framing an unfinished painting of an abstract magnolia tree that I started way back in January.
On the bed is a mess of bags and boxes containing brochures, maps, ticket stubs and other nonsense that I saved from our travels, and haven't sorted through yet. I plan on putting some of them in a scrapbook - something I've never done before, because scrapbooking just seems like an expensive and time-consuming hobby.
Speaking of which, a stack of scrapbooking paper that I bought on sale still sits on the floor, alongside a few stacks of CDs, since part of my shelving unit broke and can't hold all my music. Say what you will about the convenience of downloading music, but for me, nothing beats owning the album.
Also lumped on the floor is a duvet and sheets that I meant to wash before S arrives. Actually, maybe I'll throw that in the washer now, because it sounds like my wash just ended. Ah, dammit, wait... I just realized that I used up the last of the detergent this morning. Okay, so that means that a visit to the grocery store is in order.
While I'm out, I should actually pick up the rest of the ingredients I'll need for the murder mystery dinner party I'm throwing on Saturday too, so I won't have to do that running around when S is here.
Yeah... so I guess cleaning that spare room and buying some groceries are my biggest 'to-do's' today... but besides those, I really need to vacuum this whole place, mop the kitchen floor, and sweep out the laundry room and my bathroom.
While I'm in the bathroom, I should probably wash out the tub and sink... I'm pretty sure the toilet is fine... Oh yeah, and organize my junk drawer of miscellaneous items, in case S opens it looking for something. That thing is a mess of hair elastics n' clips, perfume, seldom worn jewelry, deodorant, old makeup gift sets that I can't bring myself to toss, and who knows what else is in there? All I do know is that the thing is like some kind of marvelous accessory treasure chest, and every time I sort through it I'm always amazed at the loot I find.
Next, I might want to tackle our bedroom... which I think is fine as long as I do another load of laundry and vacuum.
Then the kitchen... well, it was in good shape, but I 'let' J cook last night (for the second time in a month, if you can believe it!), and so now there's a mess of reddish-orange splatters all over the stove from his spaghetti sauce, even though I would pop in there from time to time to sponge it up behind his back. I have no idea how he makes such a mess when he cooks? My sauces never splatter like that. Actually, that's a lie, I do know how he makes such a mess -- he always keeps the element on high the whole time... because I remember last night I casually turned it down as I was sponging the splatter, so he must've just cranked it back up.
I suppose if I'm in the kitchen, maybe I should go through the fridge and throw out any old food to make room for Saturday night's dinner party ingredients. I am pretty sure there's still a take out box tucked away in the back of the bottom shelf that's a good month old. Yes, that's totally gross... Don't ask me why I haven't thought to remove it yet.
I also want to organize this computer station. J has large stacks of CDs and old disks dominating the shelves, and it just looks like clutter. I've been meaning to organize this for a while, and I'd really like to have it clean before all our guests come for dinner on Saturday, since the computer station is located in the dining room.
I guess I'm just a little antsy because I've never hosted a dinner party of this size before -- there'll be 8 of us in all. (We actually don't even have the table space so we're going to have to bring our patio table and chairs in here to accommodate everyone. Gosh, I hope it all fits...)
Anyhow, needless to say, I feel like I have a full day of cleaning and organizing ahead of me here, so I have no idea why I've been on MyBloggers for the last hour and a half? Probably because I don't get much of a chance to get on here during the rest of the week when J is home and we are working on the script - so I like to take advantage of the surfing/blogging time on Thursdays when he goes into the office, and we put the writing on hold.
Since I'm not working right now, (aside from the script stuff, which I can't work on without him since it's a joint effort - or at least until we're done the problem solving process of ironing out the last few little details), Thursdays have become "my" days. But really, there's nothing special about "my" days, because they're generally spent cleaning and doing other domestic goddess stuff. I have to admit that I really enjoy the opportunity to be a little Suzie Homemaker once a week. I don't know why... but I do. It's kinda fun.
Although, because we don't know what's going to happen with J's contract at work, (which they're only renewing on a month to month basis), I might start looking for something p/t in the new year once the new draft is out of the way. While there is no denying that the funding is incredibly, incredibly awesome, the fact is one of us still needs to be bringing in a bit of money in order to stretch it out to last a whole year... so if J works now, then if his contract falls through, maybe come the new year I'll step up to the plate. It just means that I'd have to work twice the hours, because I know no one is going to pay me per hour what J is getting paid doing contract. :P
However, if there's one thing I've learned about myself during this time away from the 9-5 office environment, its that I really don't want to return to Marketing , nor working in an office if I can help it.... even though that's what I went to school for and where all my professional skills are. I just have no interest anymore. So if I have to eventually get another job to help make ends meet, then I think I want to work with people... whether it's waitressing again, or maybe doing something with seniors. OR, I'd like a job where I get to work outside. I mean, I'd be more than happy to weed gardens and water flower beds.
That being said, our new script outline is really shaping up to be stronger and better than ever before. (Which is SOO exciting!!!) So I really do believe that a 'real' writing career is in my future. Therefore, in the meantime, I think I'm just going to focus every ounce of my energy on that instead of worrying about how we're going to pay the bills 6 months from now.
However, at the moment what I really should be focusing my energy on is getting this place tidy n' organized! So on that note, I had better go.  If I don't return before next week, have a happy Halloween!!