Some 2020 things

One thing I want to do is move stuff around a little in my house, really really weed the books (I have far more than I will ever read, and I have many I have read that I doubt I would re-read. I think I can donate them to the local library; they do a sale and will also pull some of the choicer books to add to their circulating collection). And weed through my clothes; I have some things I haven't worn in 15 years and that either no longer fit, or are worn-out enough I shouldn't bother keeping them.

I also want to work more on quilts, and take more quilts in to have them quilted. I hope the ladies at Lulu and Hazel's keep doing quilting, and are back on more of an even keel now, and I hope the new place I tried gets past her Christmas backlog and starts the quilt I brought in soon - she said she'd text me when she did. I need to work down some of the backlog of fabric I have, or give some fabric away.

Eventually, maybe this summer, I want to do a couple things:

- Paint my sewing room and repair (or have repaired) the place where the drywall buckled a little when I had a roof leak (since repaired) a couple years ago. I also want to rearrange things; I wish I had better storage for all my fabric but I am not sure how to manage that. I am not comfortable with the idea of renting a storage unit for my fabric - for one thing, having to drive over there to find something would reduce my likelihood of sewing, and also, I tend to feel that "maybe it's better to get rid of excess stuff than find a place to store that stuff"

- Look around at antique shops for a small "student" type desk. Ideally one with a few drawers on one side, so I could keep notebooks and pencils in there. And make room in my bedroom (that seems the most likely room, though I could also see moving the plants in my dining room window and using that) for the desk. And maybe do more writing. Or at least use it as a place to work on my computer. And no, not work-work, at least not writing manuscripts and the like for journal articles (that will be done at my office). Or, if I can get a good desk chair, use it as a place to sit and read.

I like the idea of maybe trying to ease back into writing some fiction, even if I never publish anything. Every year I see people doing NaNoWriMo and feel a little twinge; I wrote fiction and poetry in junior high and high school but gave it up in college because (a) I was too busy and (b) I felt like I wasn't any good. (Though some of the things I've read recently that actually got published, I'm wondering if maybe I actually AM good enough. Though of course except if one self-publishes, it's a giant mountain to get something accepted somewhere, and sometimes it's less a matter of merit and more a matter of connections...)

Of course, this probably means less faffing on the Internet in order to find myself the time to actually DO things.

Another thing I want to do this semester is to go to more antique shops. Even if I don't buy anything, it's interesting and fun and it might give inspiration for other projects. And maybe to build in the occasional trip to Whitesboro, maybe even to take classes at the knitting shop when they have something I want that fits into my schedule.

And just generally do more of the stuff that makes me happy.

Maybe that's the take-home message from the awfulness that was 2019: not so much "someday you're going to die and you've done so little that lasts" but "life is short and happiness* is important, and being kind and making stuff and doing things that makes you happy is maybe what really matters"

While I was less than overwhelmed with "The Chilbury Ladies' Choir," there was one bit that resonated with me, from Mrs. Tilling's last diary entry  (the book is told in unreliable-narrator style as a series of letters or diary entries from several of the major female characters). She quotes another character**: "There's a war on, and everything seems to be getting a lot worse out there. You never know what's going to happen to any of us. We need to grab any happiness we can while there's still time." and yes, there is something to that. (Especially given the events of the first few days of 2020, sigh.)

(*of course: happiness that does not harm another person, but I think that kind of goes without saying; I don't think real happiness can be derived from things that do harm to people. But also, I think maybe pushing yourself too much to always do for others even when you're tired and are not doing for yourself as a result is maybe not the path to being happy either - that you need to balance it)

(**Trying very hard to avoid spoilers; more information than this probably would be such)

I also want to get a scrapbook and start preserving some of the bits and pieces from my past that my mom's passed on to me, so they don't get lost and so I can look at them again. I will have to figure out the best way to do this - maybe, given that some of the things are things like church bulletins where sticking them down is a bad idea (you can't see all sides) and photo corners are *awfully* fiddly, maybe a nice, acid-free, archival *box* like what is used for some artifacts in library storage would make the most sense. I mean, I have no illusions here: these things I've got have no meaning to anyone but me and I expect they will perish with me. But I want to have them to look at as long as I'm here.

I also have copies of a lot of photographs, some of which were duplicates my mom gave me, others, which I scanned at the Walgreen's and had printed so I had my own copies. (Black and white photos are best for this - some of the very old ones of my mom's relatives came out extremely well. The color photos from the 1970s are worst; they seem very faded, even the original photos seem that way).  Some of these I want to frame or figure out some kind of grouped-frame way of displaying them.

And also find a frame for this postcard from my paternal grandparents' "resort" (really: small cottages on the east coast of Lake Michigan, near Benton Harbor:



I like that it has a message from my grandfather (and my grandmother's quick signature; I get the sense Grandpa was the correspondent of the two). He had very distinctive handwriting, it is unlike my father's and unlike mine. (My handwriting is actually more like my mother's than anyone's, and hers is like HER mother's, judging from some old written-out recipes she has):



I dunno; it's just a link to relatives I feel like I barely knew. I remember my paternal grandfather but not well. 

Also, for next year: I want to get one of those chains or strings with small clips on it that you can attach Christmas cards to and display them. I just like that idea; I've seen it in some people's houses and it seems to have been more of a thing some years back. Normally I stand them up on my piano but it gets crowded quickly.

Generally, I want to clear out some of the unused or unwanted things, and move stuff around a little, make the place a little homier. And maybe look ahead to finding things to do with myself come the day that I do retire, and start doing some of those things now.