Sloth Be Gone.

The last few months have been difficult for me. I've lacked energy, enthusiam, and just about any positive "GO" for all aspects of my world. Why? Oh, 3-4 hours a day drive to work, the pressures of work with one person off on medical leave, and the affect that person had on the OTHER person in my department by taking her leave. The needs to fix things in the house, the general fatigue, and the feeling crummy about myself because I haven't been getting to the gym as much as I hunger for.

Anyhoo... I rested up, elected to hold a massive dinner party on the 1st of the year, and forced myself to clear up the mental & physical clutter. We're first weekend in, and it's going good.

House is spotless. I mean C to the L to the E to the A to the N of Clean. Floors glow, walls are washed, and even those rooms designated for my brother's use are clean. (Because I snapped and went on a serious tear).

The garbage this oh-so-thorough cleaning created has been either a) recycled, b) purged, or c) donated. All in all, only 3 bags went to landfill, and that's pretty damn impressive if you'd seen the volumes of things I got rid of.

New systems are in place -- we have colour coded towels. Mine are ivory, the guest room sage green, and baby bro has navy blue. (8, to be precise). If I catch an ivory or sage anywhere in his world, he gets to see Ugly Big Sister in all her Snarling Glory.

(He doesn't much like her.)

I also moved the bowflex from my basement to my room. It's been one full week since this was done, and I've used it faithfully every other morning. (The odd days are cardio). I feel better about myself by doing this, and it's motivational. Because I'm doing resistance M-W-F, I'm dragging my sorry arse to the gym for a good run / elliptical / whatnot on the T - Th - SA. It's only been a week, but already I'm feeling much mentally better.

Food -- I'm pleased to report that my holiday snacking was minimal. Other than Christmas Popcorn, I baked lots and ate little of it. I did make things like Rib of Lamb, and prime rib, and some other really scrumptious things -- but all of them were proteins, veggies or salads. (I made this amazing spinach salad with sweet onion sauce. Oh. God. Good. And the only sweet thing in it? An onion.) I did receive a lot of chocolate, but I wisely horded it for the dinner party, put it out, and it magically vanished. (Plus, I didn't have to buy any after-dinner snacks for the party)

In the workplace -- I did a big purge there. Files, purged, desk and world around, purged. I seriously removed the clutter, and then went to town on other things. The logo & signage library -- all programs / titles no longer promotional gone. All signs needed combined into one set of folders (per title) and organized properly. No. More. Clutter. I also took an inventory of what we had and used that when ordering more.

I posted for the admin job on the 2nd, and have had a slew of resumes come in. I'm calling for interviews next week. Thus far, I have 6 I really like (potentially).

As soon as I have an admin up and running, I'm changing my hours. I'll get to work for 7:30 - 8 and leave at 3:30 - 4pm at the latest. It means I get home by 5:30pm at the latest.

If all goes well, I'll be working from home 1 day per week, 2 days in the field, and 2 in the office.

Oh, and most importantly -- I've figured out how to spend my 3 weeks of vacation time. I've got 3 days in March (making 5 days straight when you add in the weekend)., 2 days in November, and a series of 5 long weekends in June / July. That leaves 1 week for whatever / whenever.

Do I feel better? You betcha. And as I presently have baby-bro's linens in the wash (all the better to ensure his rooms stay tidy by removing those-things-that-smell-like-sweat) -- I intend to KEEP this feeling.