her real world

I cleaned my microwave

I’ve not been posting much.  But I’ve been thinking about posting a lot, which I think should count for something.

Since my last post, I’ve been thinking a lot about why I blog.  Lots of people thinking blogging is crazy.  Lots of people think that the internet is a scary place where I shouldn’t put personal information.  Goodness knows, someone might read this in 20 years when I’m Prime Minister and learn about all the crazy things I’ve done.  Like: clean my microwave.

I’m too lazy to look up any previous posts I’ve made on the matter, but one of my “things” is the fact that I’m ashamed of a dirty house.  There are probably many reasons for this, but the most important reason is that when my house is messy, I am sad.  Not because my house is messy, but because the cleanliness of my house is a barometer for my mental health, and dirty means down in the dumps.

Which is why cleaning the microwave warrants a blog post.

My microwave has been dirty for longer than I care to admit.  It has smelled like microwave popcorn (sometimes I wonder if I should have just spent money on an air popper, instead of a beautiful LG microwave popcorn machine) and had a little chunk of paper towel stuck to its turney table thing for what seems like forever.  But today after heating up my pizza I decided that I was going to use a bit of cleaning knowledge that I’d learned from goodness knows where, and clean it.

So I put a bowl full of water in it, and turned it on for five minutes.  I then forgot about it for 20 (I was eating pizza!), but then remembered it again.  I turned it on for another five minutes, this time remembering to go and rescue it after it beeped.

Inside, everything was steamy and lovely.  And with the assistance of no cleaning product whatsoever, I was able to wipe the inside free of all of the dirt with a paper towel.  And it looked gorgeous.  And I felt better.

I’m having a particularly hard time at the moment.  Money is always a bit of an issue, more so around the time when I have to pay rent and student loans.  You would think perhaps I’d change the dates so I didn’t have to pay both at the same time, but that hasn’t as of yet happened.  Even though my iPhone brings me immense joy, I worry that I shouldn’t have bought it and instead have paid down the credit card to ensure that I’d have enough room to book a plane ticket home for the holidays.  I have to remind myself that the iPhone was purchased with “me” money, and I have to stop spending that on rent or I’m going to go even more bonkers than I already am.  And I truely love my iPhone.

It’s also hard because we’re transitioning to the season and the time when I was rather unceremoniously dumped.  I’ve not talked about this much, and I’m not sure how much I’m going to talk about it other than to say that though I’d not hoped for a parade, the decency of a goodbye might have at least respected the fact that the relationship had lasted almost seven years.  Smells bring back a lot of memories, and right now the cool crisp smell of winter coming reminds me terribly of the weeks I spent curled in a ball wishing for any life but the one I was living.

This will only be magnified by the anniversary date and magnified again by the holiday season.  The hardest part is that my love of snow and Christmas and all things magical and wintery has been tainted by the fact that it’s associated with a time in my life I’ve been doing my best to forget.

It’s times like today (even when the first glorious snowflakes are floating down to earth) that I have to celebrate the small victories, no matter how trivial they might seem.

I cleaned my microwave.

7 Things About Me (That you may or may not want to know)

I’ve been tagged by J., and am tagging everyone!

1. I aboslutely adore making lists, especially lists about me.  I think I need to do a new 100 Things About Me list, because the old one is from a much different time.  I’m actually said that my lists category only has one entry in it.  Well two now, including this.  My love of lists expands to chore lists (I like making the lists, not doing the chores), grocery lists, lists of things I’d like to buy…the list goes on!

2. I’m a big fan of Facebook.  I use Twitter to update my status, and I upload most of the photos from my iPhone.  I post links and pictures that I really like, and want to share.  I import this blog so that people can read my posts from there. (Hi people who read my posts via Facebook!)  I play Tiny Adventures and keep track of books that I read.  I just love, love, love Facebook.

3. I play Dungeons and Dragons.  And I love it.  Right now I’m a 12th level monk, who is a kalashtar named Cosmaashana.  I recently realized that I accidentally removed all of my previous posts on her when I revamped the blog, so I’ll be putting those back up pronto.  You will notice that her name has a link, and all of the posts will eventually be in the Cosmaashana category.  I’m currently working on a related but super secret project that involves a sketchbook, some pencils, a canvas and some paint.  I’m sure you’ll hear about it soon.

4. I love my job.  I don’t talk about my job on my blog, but that’s because I’d rather not.  I also don’t talk about my *really* personal life either.  In both cases it’s because things happen at work and in my *really* personal life that implicate other people, other people who might not want to be talked about on the internet.  Back to my job.  I really love it, even if sometimes its going terribly.  The transition between being a student and being a professional has been a hard one, but I can say I think I’m finally at the beginning of “there”.  I’ve learned some lessons the hard way, but that’s sometimes how life goes.

5.  I’m in love with James Bond, and my favourite James Bond is Daniel Craig.  Who I often get mixed up with Clive Owen.  But it’s definitley Daniel Craig that I am in love with, and not Clive Owen.  This may or may not have anything to do with this picture.  It also may or may not have anything to do the swim trunks that he’s wearing.  But let me assure you, my love of James Bond runs much deeper than any physical attraction I may or may not have to Daniel Craig.

6. I am in love with all things England.  The time I spent in London is one of the most memorable times in my life, and the people I lived with and the people I visited that I had met when they came to Canada are some of the dearest and most wonderful people on earth.  I love the tradition, I love the buildings, I love the hundreds of years of history, I love the parliamentary system, I love the Tube, I just love, love, love all things England.  I terribly want to go back when I’m not dirt poor.

7. I am a terrible procrastinator.  Right now I’m procrastinating about going home and getting cleaned up for my parent’s arrival tomorrow evening.  I’ve been a procrastinator my whole life, just ask my Mom about my project about cows that I did in Grade Three.  I should really scan that sucker and post it.

Spread the story. Stop the disease.

http://www.xdrtb.org/

XDRTB.org is an extraordinary effort to tell the story of extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) and TB through powerful photographs taken by James Nachtwey.  XDR-TB, or extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis, is a new and deadly mutation of tuberculosis. Similar in creation to multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) but more extreme in its manifestation, it arises when common tuberculosis goes untreated or standard TB drugs are misused. James’ photographs represent these varying strains.

I have signed, I have shared, I plan on supporting.

And I’ve already been rewarded by an email from President Bush!

“comments@whitehouse.gov” to me

On behalf of President Bush, thank you for your correspondence.

We appreciate hearing your views and welcome your suggestions.

Due to the large volume of e-mail received, the White House cannot respond to every message.

Thank you again for taking the time to write.