This and that.
May. 27th, 2006 01:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterToday has been quite pleasant. Both housemates are out of town, so I have the house to myself [I thought I would have it to myself when I left work yesterday, but T hadn't left yet and I had to egress to a coffeeshop for a while to get the quiet I had been expecting. Then even that quiet evaporated.].
I got up a few minutes past six, which, these days, is sleeping in for me. When I stepped outside to water the plants, the air was cool and invigorating, so I turned off the household refrigeration unit (air conditioning) and opened all of the doors and windows. I got to do laundry my favorite way, washing it in the typical fashion and then hanging it out on the clothesline to dry. While it dried, I rode my bicycle north to a nursery in Scottsdale that has an affiliated coffeeshop. Unfortunately, the coffeeshop was closed until June 6, so I wandered around a bit and found something I've been keeping an eye out for: a plant stand with a birdcage on top so that I can have a house plant without my cat biting it to death. Unfortunately, it was a bit on the expensive side, so it will have to wait for now. House plants are a project that is pretty low on the priority list at the moment anyway.
I then made my way to an alternative coffeeshop that I have been wanting to check out called Northwest Espresso, and fortunately, it was open. It was an odd place, plopped down in a Scottsdale strip mall. They served espresso, had a drive-thru window, and had a picture of the Pike Place Market hanging on the wall, all of which I would consider to be gestures of Northwesterly-ness. But the overall atmosphere of the place was a touch too sterile and they had no bike racks. So I did not linger long. Oh, and as with many coffeeshops around here, the pastries left much to be desired. Pretty much the only place with delicious pastries around here is Lux Coffee Bar in downtown Phoenix. Everywhere else has been mediocre at best, which gives me so much more respect for the good stuff.
When I got back home, I spent a couple of hours doing what is best described as "tweaking": pulling out all of the clothes I no longer wear and putting them in a bag to get rid of them; rearranging the contents of a bookshelf to organize it better; cleaning off the stuff that has accumulated on my desk. This gives me a real appreciation for how much time one's possessions can take up. A lot of the things I was dealing with are sentimental, but at some point, even sentimental objects become more troublesome than they are worth and one must make the decision to get rid of them.
Inasmuch as my father would characterize me as a spender, I would also characterize myself as a hoarder, which probably goes hand-in-hand with being a spender. I think I picked this up from my mother, that tendency to think, "This could be useful someday" and then to find somewhere semi-obscure to stash the random object. Occasionally I do remember that I have stashed some semi-useful item somewhere and put it to good use, but more often than not, the hoarded item accumulates dust for a while and then I get rid of it.
There are three ways to cope with stuff, two of which represent extremes, and a middle route. One way is to think long and hard about what you REALLY need, and then acquire only those items and resist the temptation to impulse buy. Theoretically, you should then end up only with things that you use on at least a semi-regular basis, which should be relatively easy to take care of and which should not take up an excessive amount of time or space. This is referred to as austerity, which advertisers frown upon mightily as it does not help them sell the unnecessary item they are trying to get you to buy. Another way is to get a lot of stuff, let everything accumulate and then avoid trying to deal with it until it becomes such an overwhelming mess that it goes bad and you throw it all out, useful with useless. This is referred to as wastefulness.
Somewhere in between these two extremes is frugality--mostly buying the things you need, but occasionally buying things that you don't need, exactly, but that are shiny and beautiful and in some way enhance the quality of your life.
I'm still trying to find that balance. I'll tell you when I get closer.
I got up a few minutes past six, which, these days, is sleeping in for me. When I stepped outside to water the plants, the air was cool and invigorating, so I turned off the household refrigeration unit (air conditioning) and opened all of the doors and windows. I got to do laundry my favorite way, washing it in the typical fashion and then hanging it out on the clothesline to dry. While it dried, I rode my bicycle north to a nursery in Scottsdale that has an affiliated coffeeshop. Unfortunately, the coffeeshop was closed until June 6, so I wandered around a bit and found something I've been keeping an eye out for: a plant stand with a birdcage on top so that I can have a house plant without my cat biting it to death. Unfortunately, it was a bit on the expensive side, so it will have to wait for now. House plants are a project that is pretty low on the priority list at the moment anyway.
I then made my way to an alternative coffeeshop that I have been wanting to check out called Northwest Espresso, and fortunately, it was open. It was an odd place, plopped down in a Scottsdale strip mall. They served espresso, had a drive-thru window, and had a picture of the Pike Place Market hanging on the wall, all of which I would consider to be gestures of Northwesterly-ness. But the overall atmosphere of the place was a touch too sterile and they had no bike racks. So I did not linger long. Oh, and as with many coffeeshops around here, the pastries left much to be desired. Pretty much the only place with delicious pastries around here is Lux Coffee Bar in downtown Phoenix. Everywhere else has been mediocre at best, which gives me so much more respect for the good stuff.
When I got back home, I spent a couple of hours doing what is best described as "tweaking": pulling out all of the clothes I no longer wear and putting them in a bag to get rid of them; rearranging the contents of a bookshelf to organize it better; cleaning off the stuff that has accumulated on my desk. This gives me a real appreciation for how much time one's possessions can take up. A lot of the things I was dealing with are sentimental, but at some point, even sentimental objects become more troublesome than they are worth and one must make the decision to get rid of them.
Inasmuch as my father would characterize me as a spender, I would also characterize myself as a hoarder, which probably goes hand-in-hand with being a spender. I think I picked this up from my mother, that tendency to think, "This could be useful someday" and then to find somewhere semi-obscure to stash the random object. Occasionally I do remember that I have stashed some semi-useful item somewhere and put it to good use, but more often than not, the hoarded item accumulates dust for a while and then I get rid of it.
There are three ways to cope with stuff, two of which represent extremes, and a middle route. One way is to think long and hard about what you REALLY need, and then acquire only those items and resist the temptation to impulse buy. Theoretically, you should then end up only with things that you use on at least a semi-regular basis, which should be relatively easy to take care of and which should not take up an excessive amount of time or space. This is referred to as austerity, which advertisers frown upon mightily as it does not help them sell the unnecessary item they are trying to get you to buy. Another way is to get a lot of stuff, let everything accumulate and then avoid trying to deal with it until it becomes such an overwhelming mess that it goes bad and you throw it all out, useful with useless. This is referred to as wastefulness.
Somewhere in between these two extremes is frugality--mostly buying the things you need, but occasionally buying things that you don't need, exactly, but that are shiny and beautiful and in some way enhance the quality of your life.
I'm still trying to find that balance. I'll tell you when I get closer.
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Current Location
Date: 2006-05-27 10:27 pm (UTC)Re: Current Location
Date: 2006-05-28 01:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-28 03:05 am (UTC)I went to this new brioche place in the market today. Damn fine pastries.