island of sanity

I took advantage of the long weekend to make some little progress on the massive sorting-purging-tidying process that is a constant in my life just now. I have achieved a small island of sanity in the necessary chaos:I had been using a table with no drawers as a desk for way too long. So I came to my senses and re-established the desk as a desk, as opposed to "a handy surface upon which to pile stuff whilst trying to decide what to do with and about everything." These drawer things are amazing -- have you heard about these? -- I can stuff a lot of my stuff in the drawers, close them, and then mirable dictu! all the stuff is still at hand but the top of the desk is relatively clear and open and suitable for use as a napping spot for Beau.

This is Beau:
Beau showed up in the yard one day, hunkered and screaming. The screaming misled me into thinking "This is one mean junkyard dog of a cat." But Beau was mostly terrified and, when translated, the screaming went something like Pleaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeassssssssssssssssse Hellllllllllllllllllllllp Mmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Now Beau is a house cat. In this photo from the transition, you may be able to tell from his expression that he was still a little uncertain of What Just Happened. But he swiftly got into the swing of being inside and has become an indispensable member of the household.

Beau helped me revise my syllabus:
pitches in with the vacuuming
[aka hoovering, for my overseas friends]
is an enthusiastic mouser
adventurous
and a perceptive critic although his attention span is not all it might be
And now I have some serious work to do, so I will turn my back on the rest of the room -- which, quite obviously, is still in transition and have at it.
Being a virtuous sort, I did throw out that bag of shredded paper featured in the foreground. The Queen of Industry, that's me. . .

Excelsior, mes amis. Ever and always, excelsior.

work in progress

Okay. Believe it or not, this represents progress. The rug is visible. There are whole swathes of floor with enough clear passage so that the cats no longer struggle to move around. I have packed up and thrown out huge bags o'stuff -- mostly miscellaneous papers with information that I might build a class around, or that were funny or interesting, or that might be useful, or that I can't remember why I saved in the first place.

Bags o' stuff that I only looked at when I was considering whether to throw them out, or during earlier spasms of "I really have to get organized. Oh god, this is too overwhelming." This time I threw them out (actually, I put them in the recycling bin -- which is required here in mainland NYC). Six -- count 'em -- six shopping bags of books went to the library. Some of them, maybe one bag's worth, I had bought and never read. Out. Out. Out. There is still more to go, but this is much improved.

I'm not sure how this room is going to sort into work stations. But now at least there is enough space to shift things without first having to shift other things. The house is old and the electricity is not of the first water -- so I'm not sure what all I can have going when the a/c is on, but This Is Progress. Really it is.