Thursday, October 6, 2011

Distractable Me

I’ve told this to people for years, but apparently I really do have the attention span of a walnut. Maybe it’s an age thing…I don’t know. I am, after all, turning the BIG SIX-OH in two months. (Good grief, when the heck did that happen??? Last time I checked I was fifteen…)

In my last post I mentioned that I’d gotten hooked on Facebook and happily accepted it as a second home after the pirate messageboard thing died. I can chalk my recent declining interest up to the changes that the FB Geeks (with obviously nothing else to do) have made to the site. I don’t like it…I’ve tried to get used to it…but I’m not having as much fun there anymore.

Then I mentioned that I’d become enamored with a site called Pinterest. (Notice the Pinterest “blinkies” on the blog?? Okay, so pin me...or follow me, or something! D'you think those blinkies are there for decoration??)

Wow…I just couldn’t get enough of that site. But I’ve noticed the last couple of days that my interest in Pinterest (don’t you like the way that rolls off the tongue?) is also waning. (Maybe it’s just that I see the same old stuff all the time. I suppose that I should feel validated that the stuff I like is also the stuff that a lot of other people like…but truth be told, I'm finding myself kind of bored at seeing nothing but recycled pallet furniture, burlap wreaths and table runners, mason jar-whatevers and dozens of breathtaking, beautifully designed bedrooms and dining rooms and living rooms…well, maybe not bored but sated might be a better term.) And while I did get some really cool ideas for the house, I’m not on Pinterest as much as I was.

(I’m sure my boss would see that as a good thing.)

Hmm…I wonder if I’ve got Early-Onset Alzheimers.

That…or maybe I just need a vacation. (One of my co-workers recently (and pointedly) mentioned something called “emotional burnout” to me...whatever that is…)

However I am, indeed, planning on taking some time off this month. There are several urgent reasons to do this: 1) I will lose about sixty hours of vacation if I don’t take it before the end of the year; and 2) there are “house things” that need done. The flower beds need to be winterized. Ditto the house. The furnace/swamp cooler man is coming in a couple of weeks. And I’m seriously thinking of hiring a pest control company to do a “black widow sweep,” because I do not want to spend the winter cocooned with a colony of husband-devouring arachnids with chips on their shoulders because I’ve already dispatched several of their number.

I also need to figure out something to do with the panel of wallpaper that the cat has used as a scratching post. Do I just plaster more wallpaper over it? Will it look funny because it's newer? Do I remove all the wallpaper and paint the lower wall a darker blue? (These are the burning questions that keep me up at night.) Additionally, one full bathroom needs repainting, and the ceiling of another does, as well. Mini-blinds need cleaned (badly, I might add), and I’m thinking about (finally!) relocating my computer from the basement to the office on the top floor.

It makes me tired just thinking about it...


I would love to spend that week and a half of vacation lazing on a beach in Exuma with my girlfriends, waiting for Raul the pool boy to bring me my virgin colada…but the reality is I’ll be spending my vacation with people like Ms. Swiffer, Murphy and his Wood Soap, Mrs. Libman and Mr. Clean.