Decluttering and Minimalism

I got rid of a small storage ottoman this week. I had originally intended to reupolster it, but it wasn’t worth the work given the shape it was in and that it was shedding vinyl all over my condo. I decided I would get a new one if I even needed it at all. I don’t think I do. It felt good to finally purge it from my life.

This weekend I decided it was time to clean and store my air conditioner. Between the drop in temperature and the allergens coming in, I needed to get this done. I didn’t get passed pulling it out of the window as I caught a bad cold.

I also did a social media cleanse. I detoxed my feed. The content I’m seeing now is more positive and aligned with my goals.

DIY and Projects

I was gung ho to get painting on Monday morning, but I couldn’t find a paintbrush! I decided to get one at Walmart before choir as I needed some other items. After moving some tools around, I found the brush I was sure I had purchased for this task, so I didn’t need to go buy one afterall. In retrospect, I’m not sure I could have done it in the hour before work anyway, so it was better to leave it until after choir if I had the energy still by then. I had been flip flopping on doing all the upper cabinets at the same time and I decided to just do the sink side. The sooner I got this side done completely, the sooner I would be able to get the entire kitchen done. It would also be easier to do that painting on the stove side when old stuff was gone. I originally planned it that way anyway.

I got one coat on the cupboards over lunch. The front were OK after one. The underside needed a touch more. I eventually plan to alter the undersides slightly to have better wood to screw into for lighting and such. but I decided to leave that for down the road, if at all. One cupboard would have some alterations before moving on because there are large gaps that let pests hide in and I want to stop that nonsense. I haven’t seen many since closing the hole in my floor. Thankfully.

And it wasn’t that stinky. The enamel paint I used is oil-enriched rather than oil-based, so the odour was akin to a light varnish and didn’t make my whole condo smell bad. But, I didn’t realize that it was like some Frankenstein of oil and acrylic, so I had to wait for my paint brush to thaw before I could do a second coat on Tuesday. Once the paint dried, I was able to gather the pieces for the small cabinet and assemble it.

And that’s where another obstacle popped up. The legs made the cabinet too high. My sink cabinet is lower and I can’t change that now. Thankfully, the butch in me found scrap wood to use that would correct this. I didn’t get far on it on Tuesday as I didn’t have the energy. I was feeling better enough to get one piece cut, but not all four.

I think the perfect time to work on the upper cupboard doors will be when I’m waiting for the countertop to come in. I want to pay off some previous kitchen debt before I order that. I finally decided it would be butcher block. It took forever to come to this decision.

Around 3:00 AM, I couldn’t sleep. It was too warm. So I quietly removed the hardware from my upper cabinet doors and stacked them all neatly.

Then I played some Destiny 2 in the hopes I’d be tuckered out.

On Wednesday, I began working on covering a gap in my cabinet underside where my fridge goes. It needs to be painted, but I will caulk the smaller gaps first. Then I’ll have to ensure the gaps are gone on the inside of the cupboards and it’ll be tickety boo.

On Thursday, after hitting the internet and chatting with friends, I decided the height difference didn’t matter. I would just put some caulk where the sink meets the cabinet and not worry about it. It took forever to get it the thing levelled to a reasonable amount over lunch.

Next up was figuring out a way to ensure it wasn’t going to be moving about. I used the same silicone sealant that glued the sink to its cabinet. My stepladder kept it in place for the adhesive caulk to do its magic.

I took another crack at the gap issue on Saturday as I hadn’t got the wood where I wanted it. That screwed it all up and I had to come up with a new plan. I left it for awhile as my stepladder would be needed to screw it in from the top and replace the other piece of wood that got all messed up in the endeavour. I realized I could do something better that would use one new piece of wood and not leave a giant 1.5 inch gap.

Also on Saturday, I had picked up plinth or toe kicker wood. BUT. These IKEA legs need special IKEA ones. I decided to keep it anyway for a future small shelf unit. I became fairly sure I would need to have the flooring go slightly under the cabinet given the spacing I was dealing with. Not sure enough to start installing my flooring, but I’d know completely by the time I got the toe kickers from IKEA. Do I need to mention that I was annoyed by this point? Not one thing in this project has been easy really and I don’t want to ever renovate again unless I have a helpful partner in a more regular home.

I got the toe kickers from IKEA early on in the day. I didn’t do anything beyond bringing them and some groceries home because of a head cold. At least I had them now.

Education and Spirituality

This week, I tried to take a full moon picture. It went terribly.

This month’s Fairy Oracle is the Fairy of Manifestation: Pure Intention.

Friends and Family

There’s something wonderful about seeing your best friends. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing together. The time spent in excellent company lifts spirits in a way nothing else does. It even calms a deregulated nervous system. I have a core group of women that I have known for a decade or so. I spent time with this weekend. I truly cherish them band I feel so fortunate to have them in my life. It’s a special thing when you have people who truly care about you, your boundaries, and your property. Unfortunately, they are rare and I more often find the opposite. Again, I’m so thankful for my real friends.

On Sunday, I called my dad and brothers to catch up and give them well wishes.

Gaming and Videos

I should really rename this category since I don’t do Twitch anymore. The two things should be separate. Eventually. I’ll add it to the never-ending to-do list.

Anyway, I began playing Destiny 2 this week and I’m in love. It’s like MMORPG meets FPS. My character is an Awoken warlock. I use guns, swords, and magic and it’s f’n awesome! There is a rich storyline in the game. I’m so glad it was worth the long install. Tuesday was a frustrating day until I began this game. I was so close to beating the third round of a boss, but I just didn’t quite make it. I took a walk after that loss.

I stayed up way late on Wednesday. It was happenstance because I didn’t know exactly where I was in Cyberpunk 2077 and I set of the whole hour and a halfish chain of events that brings Johnny Silverhand, played by Keanu Reeves, into V’s life. Oops. But also so worth it. I swear that some things were slightly different in this runthrough from the Nomad one. It’s entirely possible I’m misremembering though as I haven’t played it in so long because of space issues.

On Friday, I met up with friends to play a game called Little Hope. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure style horror game. We got about half way through and need to finish it sometime in the next month or so.

On Sunday, my one friend group hooked me on Sun Haven. It’s like Stardew Valley, but better. There’s more to do. Energy isn’t a bottleneck to playing or advancing. It’s more visually appealing and the days are longer, so you can get a lot more done in one session.

Health and Fitness

On Tuesday, I really struggled on the food front. Nothing was appealing. The only thing I could think of eating was Shawarma. I’m so tired of my screwed up body. I just want to lose weight, get in shape, and be healthy, but there’s always something preventing my progress. I can’t get healthy by not eating anything!

The Skip driver picked up my food, went in the opposite direction, and parked his car for 20 minutes. I had to get support to tell him to do his job. Ugh. I think I’ll only order pickup from there in the future and save the BS from Skip. Or I’ll find a better place to order from. I did advise the restaurant of what happened.

I made up a new schedule for myself and went for a walk after work on Wednesday. It was a tad chilly with just a hoodie, but I thoroughly enjoyed the fresh air. Autumn is my favourite season!

I had to cut someone out of my life. Keeping them in it was making me mentally, emotionally, and physically ill. They didn’t respect me, my boundaries, or my property and were frequently using me. This is part of what has made it so hard to get anything done in recent months. I dreaded this. One can only tell someone so many times that things are not acceptable and when there isn’t a change in behaviour, there’s only one course of action left. If you’re dealing with such a person, you deserve better and I hope you find the courage to do the same.

It’s been a long time since I felt that disregulated. Thankfully, despite the cold I’ve been working through, I can feel my nervous system slowly calming down. A weekend full of gaming and good friends helped tremendously.

That’s a word I often don’t use because the dude running things across the border has in the past. I feel like I have to take back a lot of language from that one and it makes me sad as a writer.

Movies and Television

I started watching Invasion this week. It’s a sci-fi horror show about an alien invasion. The characters include a lesbian Japanese women who works at JASA (Japanese NASA), a black soldier who is on a mission in the Middle East to find a previous crew that went missing suddenly, a female Indian woman who gave up her career in medicine to raise a family, and a teen boy from a British private school. I’m continually wondering if all of them will eventually team up though they are started in different places across the globe.

Music and Songwriting

The practice journal I got for practising bass is The Bass Guitar Practice Journal by Dan Hawkins. It has a 30-line Goals List, a Repertoire List with room for 60 song titles, Tips and Maxims, a Practice Checklist, many pages for writing down what you worked on, how long you worked on it, and how it went, and it has room to write chords down both in the log pages and in a dedicated chords section. There are even some lines for tabs. I think it will be helpful as I learn as writing things down often helps get things into my head better.

I like the way How to Play Bass Guitar in 14 Days is structured. It’s tab based, but also shows the rhythms in a proper format. So it passively provides some theory elements, which makes it easier to jump into more traditional sheet music later. The 50 first songs book does this also. In the 90s, I recall guitar tabs that just had the numbers on the lines and you had to figure out the rhythm yourself. Even then, I was trying to learn tabs for the bass elements in a song. I wish I had recognized that back then. Imagine where I could be now!

Choir practice went well this week. We practised a couple of songs and had break time with the other choir. It’s a little tough not feeling sleepy in the dimly lit church and I hope I’m not annoying anyone with my yawning!

Reading and Writing

I so wish I had more time for both right now. When things are slow at work, I’ve started reading to pass the time and it’s improving my mood substantially. I’m still working through The Tapestry of Time by Kate Heartfield.

If you’re looking for a quick and humourous read, I highly recommend this blog post by Marie Bilodeau about her adventures with a camel. Marie is one of the first humans I met in Ottawa and I’m so thankful I had the courage to go to the event I met her at back in 2013.

Catch you on the flip side,

Rae