Time to get out my clown feet and nose, to start my juggling act!
For the next three months at least, I will be juggling a number of projects:
- Some major cuts and revisions to The Book, following a little feedback from That Agent and a lot of even better feedback from Georges, all of which I quite agreed with;
- Then contacting a few more agents to see if this time, I can't scare up more interest in the book;
- Organizing and packing, again (only this time at least there is less of it to do than what we did two years ago);
- Trying to get in to see a physical therapist to find out why what started out as ankle problems from my broken leg (circa 1996) now seems to have traveled to create knee, hip and back problems galore, to the point where I am limping around like someone 20 years older than I actually am. And that just pisses me off.
- Our new investment apartment is going along smoothly so for the moment, nothing to talk about there because we have a steady tenant in residence; but looming over me is the knowledge that our lovely tenant may decide to move sooner rather than later, and then there will be another project to add to this list -- turning the apartment over into a seasonal investment. But we got into this investment knowing what it would mean, so this is not a complaint on my part, just a statement of fact that once we start hosting visitors, I'll be doing a lot of additional running around and it will be like having a part-time job.
- Some time in April, there is a big neighborhood street/yard sale and we want to haul a whole lot of stuff there to get it out of our storage unit and out of our lives while at least getting a little money for it.
- Along with all of the above, there's the winter school break coming up in the latter half of February, and then we'll be moving some time toward the end of March, I think (haven't picked a date yet for that). Then after we move, there will be the unpacking and settling in, just in time for the Easter school break in mid-April! Every time there is a school break, we have a young boy to keep entertained for a week of each break (a month in summer), so there's all that to think about and plan.
Looking at this list of THINGS TO BE DONE (plus all the unwritten, unspoken details of daily life and Expecting the Unexpected), I can tell I'm getting my old feeling of being overwhelmed by everything I know I will have to do. I seem to get like that: I know they are coming, all the THINGS TO BE DONE. I know what I need to do. I know I can handle it, and that I will handle it well. But before it all starts, whenever I realize there is this much juggling to be done, I get overwhelmed and want to just curl up in bed with my head under the covers (the fact that it's super-cold in Paris this week AND we have had heat/hot water issues for the past 4 days in a row doesn't help, because who could possibly get motivated with cold, grey weather, the possibility of snow AND waking up to cold radiators and ice-cold water in the hot water pipes. A warm comfy bed really seems like the most sensible place to be right now).
Of course I will find a way to shake off the "overwhelm blues" and get it all done, because that's just how I roll. And all will be well, the way it always is. I enjoy change, but the part I enjoy about it is the beginning (the excitement and anticipation of something new) and the end (when it's all done and I can see the results); but the middle part, where it's all chaotic and you feel like a damned wishbone? Yeah, not so exciting to me.
The best news I had all last week, other than having signed the lease on the new place, was that our wonderful cleaning lady will be perfectly happy to keep working for us even though we will be moving farther away from her (it will now be a 15-20 min trip by bus instead of a 10-min up-hill walk). We'll be living in a much smaller place and I could probably manage the cleaning myself, but it's great to have that extra help, plus she irons Georges' work shirts and pants, which I definitely stink at and don't want to do. Maybe this aversion to ironing is hereditary: my mother told me that when she first got married to my dad, she hated ironing all his dress shirts for work; but she did it anyway, trying to be the perfect housewife circa 1960. Then her new mother-in-law (who was very much a typical housewife and was married to a minister so she REALLY had to be "perfect") found out my mom was doing all that ironing and she said, "Are you crazy? I never iron my husband's shirts; I send them out to the cleaners and let them do the work!" And that was the last time my mother ironed those shirts.
When you're juggling a lot in your life, it pays to ask for (or even pay for) help wherever you can.
It's all good stuff, this list (well, other than the pain I'm in), and in just a few weeks it will all ease up but right this moment it feels like a LOT. Still, life is like that sometimes. Just when life starts to feel too tame and almost boring because everything is so calm and ordinary, we go through a fresh wave of all sorts of new things, all at the same time. In that respect, everyone's life is exactly like that. It's not only me. We all have way too many balls in the air.
Speaking of juggling, I also need to head to the supermarket because I bought this damn Crockpot over a week ago and still haven't used it because I didn't bother to choose some recipes and buy all the ingredients. The Crockpot is supposed to be a huge timesaver but frankly I'm having doubts because of the amount of planning and prep work that seem to go into most of the recipes. So this week, will it be sweet and sour chicken or beef stew for our inaugural Crockpot meal? Answer: whichever recipe has ingredients that are easiest to find in France.
While wearing clown feet, big red nose, and a lapel daisy that squirts water at the supermarket cashier.
