This week is important because it's my last week working at Wawa until at least May (and quite possible forever). I have really enjoyed my time there, and the company has been good to me as I've been in school, but it's just time to move on and I've been offered some neat opportunities that I want to pursue (I'll post a little more about why at the end of the week).
However, since I always enjoy looking back at the journals I've kept during various parts of my life, I thought I'd chronicle this last week for old time's sake (and also since it promises to be a killer week :)).
Anywho...
This is something I will not miss, getting up at dark-thirty to be at work by 3 or 4. :) Normally I'm good at tucking myself into bed early so I'm not a complete zombie the next day, but our store Christmas party was last night and I stayed out a bit later than I meant to (but we were having so. much. fun.). I woke up this morning at 2:30 AM, which was unfortunate since I didn't actually have to get up til 3 AM and I couldn't really go back to bed.
I worked til 10 AM, making breakfast sandwhiches and manning our hot-to-go warmers. Everyone was moving pretty slowly today after partying last night, so my own wacky sleep-deprived state pretty much fits right it. :)
After work I drove home and literally fell onto my bed and slept til 1:30. I almost never nap but apparently I really did not get enough sleep to get by on last night. Usually if I do nap, I wake up groggy and can't seem to get started again, but today I got a second wind and I am truly amazed at everything I got done today. One of the things I do every year is to clean out everything in my room, car, etc, before New Year's Eve. I usually push it off until the week (or occasionally the day) before New Year's, but this year I started Thanksgiving week. I've already tackled a couple of the organizing tasks I dread (like going through and organizing my filed -eh!) so hopefully the rest of the cleaning and organizing should go really quickly.
When I woke up, I took everything out of my closet, my dresser, seasonal storage, etc, and began organizing and cleaning out my wardrobe. I wiped down the insides of the dresser drawers with bergamot oil (bergamot is that elusive but distinctive scent in Earl Grey tea - mmm!), which took maybe 15 minutes but is so worth it - whenever I open the drawer now I'll get a whiff of that scent, not to mention now all my clothes smell lovely. :)
Last year at the beginning of the year, I went through my closet and threw out everything that wasn't "perfect" - i.e. didn't fit right, wasn't a color or style I loved, needed altering or repairing that I wasn't willing to commit to, etc. It was kind of a leap of faith since I didn't have all that many clothes then, but it was so nice afterwards because literally everything in my closet was wearable. Why do we have clothing in our closets that we can't use?!? Is it guilt or wishful thinking? I don't know... but I know that inevitably they do creep in. Anyway, that was last year and in the twelve months since then, I have outgrown stuff, my style has changed, I've been given clothing items that didn't work perfectly (but were free! so somehow I feel like I 'have to' make them work) and some stuff has simply worn out or been damaged. Everything in this category went yesterday! I literally tried on everything I own, and if it didn't work, it went into my "depart from me" pile. :) The uplifting part about this whole process is that I actually 'discovered' some pieces that I haven't worn (or haven't worn in awhile) that I am really looking forward to wearing now. Even some pieces that I had thought before were maybe unflattering, I now know exactly how I'll style them. It's totally true, that when you want new clothes you should 'shop' your own closet first! (On the flip side, I do now have a rather large pile of clothes - dresses, blazers, I think some skirts, accessories, even a few pairs of shoes that I never wore - that are up for grabs, if anyone is interested).
Once I had chucked a lot of stuff from my wardrobe, I went on a sewing/mending rampage - I had shirts that I loved the fit of, but that had 3/4 length sleeves (bah! humbug! I hate 3/4 length sleeves!), a skirt with a broken button, a button down that needed hemming, etc, etc. I even darned my down comforter that had developed a hole that was being held together by a safety pin (yes, I know, I know). The sewing machine whizzed! It hummed! I must have used at least seven different colors of thread! On the flip side, I can now wear some of those shirts after I've hacked off inches of sleeve. :)
What else did I do? I went through all my purses and cleaned them out... why do I stick a purse on a hook with receipts, gum, lipstick, etc still in it? I don't know. I'm lazy. I also chucked quite a few pairs of shoes that had worn almost to the point of disintegration because I hadn't yet figured out how to buy shoes for my large wide feet.
Then I did something which was truly monumental. I have always wanted to use the 36"X58"X14" shelf space above my closet for storage bins... yes, I know, Rubbermaids look industrial and plastic but they will be tucked up and away in my closet, not displayed in my room (I bought beautiful storage boxes last year for visible storage, and I love looking at them). I always think to myself, "it will be too expensive," "I will bring them home and they won't fit," "etc, etc, etc," but today I totally just went ahead and did it. Armed with the dimensions of my space and a measuring tape borrowed from the hardware department (I usually carry a measuring tape with me in my purse, but I don't know where I've misplaced it), I bought eight mini Rubbermaid bins and two ultra short but very long bins for under the bed. I now have enough storage to store the world. I even have growing room. :) Just getting everything put away and stored and not laying in piles or stacked on my bookshelves is such a boost!
I took the twins with me (Allen and Lizzie, 13) and we had a blast on our "midnight run" (lol, it was actually more like 8 PM but it was super-dark and felt much later) to Wal-Mart. Best of all, we discovered a few last-minute gifts that were truly incredible, and finished getting everything for Christmas morning stockings (this is an important tradition around here).
I came home from Wal-Mart, installed my new finds, and completely crashed. I had given up every last bit of energy I had, and I was ready for bed. :)
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