Thursday, August 10, 2017

Stuff Is The Real Beast Of Burden

It's been one of those days where nothing I had planned to do happened, for the most part, and nothing I did was what I had planned to do.
I had planned to make my husband a meat loaf to take to Georgia for him and his buddy to make sandwiches with this weekend and also, cookies.
Those things I did.
I got them done early because his ETD was noon.
Why did I actually base my plans on that? Why?
There is real time and there is Glen Time.
And I was completely aware that the chances of him leaving at noon were approximately the same as the chances that Donald Trump would start to speak in complete sentences containing words larger than two syllables.
As in, none.
But like Charley Brown and the football, I fall for it every time and figured that maybe, oh- he might be leaving around 1:00 or 1:30.
I think he pulled out of the driveway around 4:30.

Meanwhile I had put off my running to town to get a few errands done until after he left but after he left I said, fuck that, and decided to sort/rearrange/organize and clean the children's books in my library. This happened because Jason came over with the children after the boys' school orientation because my across-the-street neighbor had offered him two twin mattresses which he wanted to pick up. So the kids were over here and in the first ten minutes they were here, they'd had cookies, Maggie wanted a pickle, she spilled the contents of a Monopoly game out and she pooped. Then Mr. Moon got home and Jason finished loading the mattresses and Lily texted to see if I had three books that Owen needs to read before school starts on Monday. The books were: Blueberries for Sal, an Amelia Bedelia book and a Frog and Toad book.
Miraculously, I had all three but while I was searching for them I suddenly got the bright idea to do something about the disorder in the children's book section.
So after Mr. Moon left I started that little task by taking all of the kid books off the shelves and then sitting in the middle of them and trying to figure out at least a little bit of organization in reshelving them. At least to have the baby books in one place and the teen books in another place and the classics in another place and so on and so forth.
Which I have now sort of done. The hardest part was sitting on the ground for that long. Something has happened to my ligaments and tendons and joints which makes this almost impossible and please don't tell me to take yoga. I already know I should be doing that.

I culled some things, mostly Disney crap or abridged versions of books which had somehow snuck their way into my library. Those will be going to the dump, but not into the crusher thing. I'll set them on the side so that people can take them if they want them. I find this direct method of donating completely sensible. 

Then I decided to do something about the games and puzzles. I half-ass organized them and wish I had the temerity to cull a lot of them. Look- I'm sixty-three years old and in whatever time I have left on this earth, I doubt I'll ever be playing some of those games again and I'll never, ever put together a jigsaw puzzle with pieces smaller than my thumbnail. 
Still. I kept them all. 

Although that is the "after" picture, I realize it looks like a "before." 
Well, so be it. 

Anyway, this all led me to realize that I absolutely need to deal with ALL of the books on my shelves and ALL of the crap on my shelves and I started but was overwhelmed. I left it in its state of disarray and disorganization and disagreeableness and decided that, once again like Scarlett O'Hara, I will think about it tomorrow when I am stronger. 

When the kids were here, Owen put one of my old LP's on the record player. He chose it simply due to the cover but it turned out to be the Rolling Stones' album Some Girls whose cover was designed by Andy Warhol. 

"Mer, where did you get all of these records?" he asked me. 
"Well, back in the old days, they had record stores. That's where I got most of them," I said. 
This was so far from his reality that I don't think he even took it in. 
But I do have quite a collection of old albums. 
And guess where those live? 
Yeah. In the library. 

This project could take awhile. 

Wish me luck. 

Love...Ms. Moon


  1. Frog and Toad! Oh, how my kids loved those books. We would read them together and laugh and laugh. When my boy moved out he took them. I have since replaced them with a beautiful hardcover, Frog and Toad Treasurey.

    And here's this. I own a shit load of books. There is an app called Sort it! It is definitely in my top 5 favourite apps. All I have to do is scan the barcode or add the ISBN and it gets added to my library. I have never bought the same book twice since so it's paid for itself. Its not expensive.

    I loathe all abridged books. They are the books that have had their souls stolen from them. An absolute travesty. It's shouldn't be allowed. Ever.

  2. I am very impressed with your library!

    We have record stores here.

  3. Seriously, isn't it lovely going through the books and putting them in some kind of order? I was a bookseller for many years and believe me, you never lose that urge. I regularly straighten spines and replace lost titles when I visit a shop now.

    As for the games, keep them, keep them all! When my daughter, a splendid and extremely adult academic visited earlier this summer, she spent an entire rainy afternoon going through her old jig saw puzzles and cut out paper dolls collection from the attic (which - in true form - I had to carry back up after she had left).

    We also keep a basket of barbies (incl. shoes) for visiting hippie kids who were/are not allowed to go near that stuff and who claim it's like taking illicit drugs for an afternoon.

  4. I culled the games and puzzles awhile back. I texted the grandkids before so was told what to keep but really, they don't play the games anymore and we have several puzzles that remain undone since my puzzle doers are off to college soon. I also got rid of all the children's books, donated all the the women's shelter re-sale shop.

  5. This sounds a lot like my job in the library! LOL

    It's always satisfying to work on a project like this, though, isn't it? Even if it's exhausting, it's nice to see everything all organized at the end.

  6. I've designated a large part of Sophie's closet as storage for the literal hundreds of children's books that I bought for them. They're arranged on shelves, and you can't quite reach them because the door doesn't slide open there, but I know they're there, dusty yet safe. I will one day open the door and look through each and every one. I also hope to have a grandchild one day who will WANT to inherit them. Ahem.


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