Decluttering

I got rid of a ton of clothes. A drawer full of pajamas (I don't even wear pajamas. I sleep nak- um, I wear a T-shirt and shorts), about thirty tops including a load of huge-black-metal-concert-tees and some things that never really fit right, around eight pairs of jeans, some sweaters, loads of socks and underwear, some five pairs of footwear, and I still have loads of clothes.

Where does it all come from??

I mean, I gained a few items, too, because my sisters decluttered their closets at the same time. So I got some hand-me-down jackets and sweaters, some tops, and a skirt (for funerals, because I do have this one other black skirt, but it's a flouncy miniskirt and I'm not sure that other funeral attendees would appreciate it).

And I realize that sounds counter-productive, but some of these things are clothes that I lusted after for years. My sister's "I love you very mush" sleeveless hoodie shirt, for instance, which has four little mushrooms on the front. Or this one green jacket she bought in Europe.

Oh, and the jeans I got rid of– I was a size 3 in high school, apparently. Holy crap!

Before giving it all away to our housekeeper (who has lots of daughters and grandchildren to give clothes to), we went through it all with our cousins so they could pick out whatever they might want. They all went home with a few things and we were happy knowing that this stuff is going to loving homes. I mean, most of it is in really good condition, plus it's good quality, brand name stuff.

My cousin took this shirt by mistake and was about to make off with it. I was all, nooooooo! Get away!!

Although there were a few times when certain items were hard to let go of. One of my cousins was looking for clothes to make crafts out of, rather than wear: "Hey! This skirt would make a great cushion!" My eldest sister's eyes shot wide open and her mouth formed a tiny, horrified "o". Later that night I saw her wearing the skirt in question and telling my aunt, "She wanted to sew it into a cushion. This skirt, a cushion!"

Good morning

I set my alarm for 9 AM. It's a good time to wake up during the holidays, as it's neither early nor terribly late. When you wake up at 9AM, it's already light out and you don't feel like you're getting up into a dark, lonely world. You don't lie in bed for a while wondering what to do. The day has already started and it's the right time for going downstairs to fix yourself coffee and breakfast.

"9AM," I thought last night as I set my alarm, "that's a good time to get up tomorrow. I'll get nine whole hours of sleep."

I woke up at 7:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. Typical.

What is up with that? One of my resolutions for this year is to sleep more, but how do I do that if my body won't let me? Adolescents are supposed to get nine hours of sleep, but short of taking meds, I don't know how I can do that. I'm on holidays! Why can't I sleep more?

Also, it's really bugging me that I have these bags under my eyes that won't go away. I put concealer under my eyes so that they won't freak people out. Whenever I forget or don't have time to wear makeup, people take one look at me, remark that I look tired, and ask me if I'm okay or if I pulled an all-nighter.

I've always looked tired, even when I was, like, eight years old. You just couldn't tell so much before because I wore glasses.

Ao anyway, I got up at 7:30, stretched a bit, put on some music, read some blogs, danced around a bit, drank some water, took a body test on the Wii Fit and fixed myself a coffee.

I'm too lazy to use the coffeemaker very often, so by "fix myself a coffee" I mean "heated up my leftover tea from last night, plus some extra water, and put it in a mug with some instant coffee. Also milk."

Speaking of which, my sister and I have recently switched from drinking low-fat milk to whole milk. For as long as I can remember, my family's always had low-fat milk. My cousin said it was like drinking insipid, white water and I thought she was exaggerating… until I tried some whole milk in my coffee. After years of drinking 2% milk, drinking whole milk feels like drinking cream.

When I get used to whole milk, I intend to start melting butter and stirring that into my coffee.*

Coffeeeeee.

*Just kidding. OR AM I?

Seven: a memoir

When I was in second grade, we were learning to multiply in school. So, for a while, our daily homework was to learn one of the times tables. A new one each day, working our way up from 2 to 10.

Now, I've always been lazy. In kindergarten I never did my homework unless I deemed it a fun assignment. And in second grade, that still happened if I felt I could get away with it. It was fine when we were multiplying in 2's and 3's, but it got harder to fake as the number grew bigger. I'd sit in class while everyone around me recited "Six times seven, forty-two! Six times eight, forty-eight!" and I'd sort of mouth along with them. I was probably a bit nervous about getting called on, but not enough to want to study.

Eventually, my parents found out that I was slacking off. They were not amused. A laminated poster was purchased with the times tables on it, my mom made flashcards, and the pièce de résistance was a horrible educational CD procured from some dark corner of horribleness. The CD claimed to teach kids math… with rock music! I remember hating it: the stupid-sounding character (called Mr. Rock or something to that effect*), the bad music, the feeling of condescension that emanated from it all. Mr. Rock would recite the times tables (too fast for me to glean any nuggets of wisdom) and ask his listeners– his buddies– to join in!

Since the CD wasn't bad enough in itself, my sisters mocked me for it as well. In fact, my cousins were visiting a few weeks later and they made fun of me, too, when they found the CD. I hated that CD.

Yuck.

Anyway, my parents made me sit on my bed and learn the times tables using all the study aids they'd showered upon me. So I did, sort of. That was the day my class had been sent home with the mission of learning the seven times table. So that's what I focused on: seven times four is twenty-eight. Seven times five is thirty-five. Seven times six...

Now, I didn't study the six times table, or the four times table (the fives time table is easy, as we all know, and not worth mentioning). What for? Those had been covered on previous days and I'd never be quizzed on them again! No, I studied the seven times table, learned it by heart, recited it to my folks, and thus convinced them that their deed was done.

The same dedication did not go into the eight or nine times tables on following days: I slacked off one those, too. But I'll be damned if I didn't master the seven times table. And here's a little secret: to this day, I have to stop and think for a second when I'm multiplying small numbers... unless there's a seven involved.

I'd thank my parents if it weren't for that stupid CD.**

* I looked it up; it's "Professor Relamido". As in, musical notes: re-la-mi-do

** Which you can buy on iTunes. Don't, though.

Resolutions

I haven't thought these through, but here goes:

Form these habits:

• Dink 2 liters of water a day (more when exercising, obviously)
• Lie down and listen to podcasts* when I'm stressed
• Floss most days
• Go to bed early**
• Wash my face before bed
• Lose arguments more often (i.e., stop needing to be right all the time)

Break these habits:

• Eating as soon as I get home even if I'm not hungry
• Eating before bed***
• PROCRASTINATION!!

Do these things:

• Run two races.
• Throw out/give away/get rid of 60 things in my bedroom (i.e., declutter)
• Get a 10 in Parasitology
• Redecorate my room****

* Such as: Definitely Not The Opera, Vinyl Cafe, Ideas, Quirks and Quarks, This Week In Parasitism, The Age of Persuasion, etc.

** I'm planning to still take afternoon/night classes, so... be in bed before midnight, most of the time.

*** I now suffer of reflux (ew) when I eat big-ish portions, and I do not want esophageal cancer!!

**** Put up a painting or something, at least.

Grading my year

After making it, I had described my list of 2011 resolutions as "eensy and doable". I'm not sure what I was thinking at the time, because when I read over it now it seems pretty lofty and huge– and this is the second version, which is smaller than the first one.

So let's see how I did:

Get a 9+ average one semester. My second semester, which ended in June (I think) was my best semester in University, so far, with a 9.0 average. So this resolution has been met (never mind that I failed half of my subjects in my third semester, which just ended a few weeks ago. Rough patch).

Talk to people more. Compared to how the year started out, yes. I can talk to people more easily now, and all it took was practice.

Make my own school lunches. Healthier and cheaper! I don't always do it, but I bring food pretty often. I don't like to depend on packaged granola bars (unhealthy) or cafeteria dinners (sometimes tasty, but sometimes... well, not. Also I don't alway have time to choose, line up, buy and eat).

Brush my teeth more often. I did at first, but then I reverted back to twice a day.

Learn to drive. Nope. But I did get my licence, so at least that was a step in the right direction.

Stay reasonably informed about the going-ons of the world. See the teeth-brushing resolution.

Read 100 books. Failed. Read only 53 books in eleven months (started counting in February).

Finish a 5k race (and get a free T-shirt from it or something). Nope, but I did run a 7k race!! This is the only one where I went above and beyond.

Eat 8-9 serving of fruit and veggie a day. Nope. I did go through periods where I ate this much, but there were other times when I'd have 2 or 3. Currently I oscillate between 4 and 7.

All in all, not bad. Not good, but pretty decent. I'd say 7.1 out of 11.3.

Books 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53

• Book 48: Roverandom, by Tolkien

It was by Tolkien, it was tiny, it was about a dog. It's also a children's book, and has a sort of a simple, old-timey feel about it that is reminiscent of The Moomins. Cute, but I didn't enjoy it too that much because it felt a bit tedious at parts.

• Book 49: was The Reptile Room, by Lemony Snicket.

I need fast reads to rack up my numbers before the year ends tomorrow. Pathetic, I know, but this is a good book so it's not as sleazy as it seems. Hopefully.

I read the Unfortunate Events series once before, when I was in secondary school. It was the end of the school year so we were obliged to go to school, but there was nothing to do there except sit around and talk and play. I'm a boring person so I sat on a desk that last week and read all the books (there's 13 of them) except the first one. We don't have it anymore because my eldest sister lent it to her then-boyfriend and he never gave it back.

Actually, we do have the first book, but only in French and I'm too lazy to read in another language (also, my I take this moment to express my admiration for the people I know who do read in English even though it's not their first language? You guys are ballsy and awesome).

• Books 50 and 51 were the first and second Death Note graphic novels.

Yes, they count as books. They're a bunch of papers bound together and there's a story in them, even if it's mostly pictures. Shut up, I'm not cheating!

I watched the anime a few years ago and bought the first four volumes of the manga version because they were cheap, but I never actually read them. I'm making up for it now.

• Book 52: The Gospel According to Larry, by Janet Tashjian

Someone mentioned it in a review of another book and it sounded good, so I asked my mom (holder of the Card of Credit) to buy it online if she saw a good used copy. She did, but it got lost in the mail so she bought it again after a few months.

It was good, but I would have liked it more if it had been written for an older audience (it's for ages 12 and up) because although the story is pretty far-fetched*, the themes it deals with could be developed a little further.

I really liked the idea of having only 75 possessions because I'm a fan of decluttering. Well, sort of– I love the idea but I have too much damn stuff to find a good home for (and I'll be damned if I'm throwing out my Darth Vader spiral-straw cup).

* 17-year-old genius dude writes short lecture/sermon/rants about consumerism, hypocrisy, etc. and posts them on a website under a false name; eventually he becomes an anonymous celebrity and struggles to keep his identity secret. He's also in love with his best friend, so there's a side story about that, too.

If you want it and you promise to LOVE IT FOREVER, give me a shout.

• Book 53 is What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained, by Robert Wolke.

I finished several months ago, but I didn't mention it because I read it in parts. It lived on the breakfast table, so every time I sat down to eat, I'd read a section or three. First the ones about chocolate and desserts, then the ones about kitchen equipment, then the parts about temperature, and so on, until reading the ones dealing with salt. Plus all the recipes. Eventually, I ran out of sections because I'd finished it all up. It was excellent.

Books 45, 46, 47

Book 45: Historias de Diván, by Gabriel Rolón

The only book in Spanish I'll have read this year, it seems. It's made up of eight short, true stories about the patients an Argentinian psychotherapist has treated. Apparently the author is quite famous in Argentina, having shows on television and radio wherein he dispenses advice to the public; sort of like Dr. Phil, but probably less annoying. Hopefully.

I bought this at a book fair last Saturday for a measly 39 MXN (instead, I could have bought 4 liters of bottled water, 19.5 packets of gum or a movie ticket if it were a Wednesday. Fun fact for you.) The book, anyhow, was pretty good although not spectacular. Gave me a few things to think about.

Book 46: Princess in the Spotlight, by Meg Cabot

The second book in the Princess Diaries series. I had a long journey via public transport ahead of me, so I picked this up because it's easy to read and very entertaining. Unlike, I might add, the last few books of this series which are kind of boring.

Book 47: What I Was, by Meg Rosoff

Good up until the last quarter or so of the book, at which point it became very good. I liked that the main character wasn't entirely likable, yet I still sympathized with him. Usually when you don't entirely like a character it's because you hate them. At least, that's true in my case.