Last night I fall asleep at a more reasonable time, 9:30, and slept until about 6, then stayed in bed doing a very long wake up period for about 30 minutes. This is practically ideal as a schedule, and I'm very glad that I was physically centered and present when I woke up. Somewhere along the line, probably during a dogsitting jaunt, I fell out of the habit of taking magnesium at night, which does a ton of good neurological things and also helps my sleep quality. I started taking it again last week, and I'm hopeful that this is the root of good sleep last night.
While I was waking up, Kat texted that she was skipping the walk because of a headache. I went to the gym and had a nice long steam room and sauna session, then came back and changed into walking clothes. I had initially figured I would skip the walk too, but then after getting home I wanted to walk "just a little" which turned into the regular 1.5 mile cicrcuit we typically walk together. It was nice, and good, and I'm glad I went.
I stopped by the mail room on the way in from the walk and picked up a couple packages that arrived as well as the stack of "you've got mail" mail. Vivian's physical copy of Seraphia came, along with her credit card with her name on it, and there was also the delivery of a scad of yarn for a project I'm designing. This is the second shipment (different companies) that has been marked "yes, please wind this for me" that has not, in fact, been wound. Okay, Universe. I dumped the yarn in a basket and set it aside. Nothing needs to be done for several weeks, so there's time to delve into the bedroom closet and excavate my yarn swift. It will likely trigger the whole Bedroom Closet Project, which is not something that needs to be this challenge or possibly even the next one. There is time, and all will be well.
I'm really pleased with how the Apartment Therapy has turned out so far. I feel like I have a great foundation for daily life, and for furture Apartment Therapy projects. My overall goal for 2023 is to have the Loft have everything I need, with a home for every thing, and nothing that I don't, along with out-of-the-way storage for less everyday items, which leaves me available to midfully consider what qualifies as an "everyday item." This has been a very spiritual process, and I'm liking it very much.
Speaking of Apartment Therapy, the second coffee table currently is sitting behind the sofa, in the dining / entrance area, where it landed while waiting for Vivian's Final Approval of getting rid of it (with suggestions for where it should live if we decide to keep it). It's becoming quite useful as a bench for putting on or taking off shoes and as a landing zone for whatever bag is in my hand at the moment. It might end up staying in the apartment after all.
My morning phone call was particularly meaningful this morning after the walk, and when I logged in I felt centered and capable. This is good.
Wednesday's list involves baking bread, taking the wagon of empty boxes to the dumpster area, and then going on to pick up the milk for the week. After that I need to read for 30 minutes or so if I haven't done that at lunchtime. I might walk over to the War on Books at lunchtime since it's just around the corner and they have a copy of Industrial Society and Its Future and I need to add it to my Endangered Books collection, probably right next to my copy of Maus.
I've lost most of my Endangered Books Collection in the chaos that was 2020-2021, and I had thought I was okay with not having any of them on hand (because libraries, and electronic copies, and all that), but when Tennessee went full on Regime about Maus, I knew I needed to carve out a bit of shelf feet to recreate it. So far I have only Maus, but as the Book Wars ramp up, I am feeling the need to return to the original volumes that started the whole collection, especially The Anarchists Cookbook and 1984. Most of the books that I unboxed last week and put in the lower shelves of the coffee table seemed ridiculous for me to own -- the collected works of John Stuart Mill isn't really something I'm going to be skimming through the physical copy of, and several of the collections of short stories can be gladly shared into the hands of others now that they have graced my life, along with some of the other writing craft titles that I had to admit to myself that I was only keeping as demondstration of my writing chops. I'm not proving anything to anyone anymore. Titles that have a significant emotional component can stay, of course, like Firebreak and The Bone People. I'm not doing the whole "five books are all you ever need" plan, here, just some mindful weeding, which, now that I write it, is sort of a physical manifestation of the spiritual work I've been doing for the past couple years.
