Excessive

I lived today from a list, and it was wonderful. What do I mean? I mean essentially I woke up, made a list of things to do, and just went through doing each thing all day. I've written about it many times, in many different ways, but it boils down to the fact that having a structured to-do list helps me with my mood, my energy and my just overall well being.

Due to the way that I... structured my day... I got a lot accomplished, and enjoyed quite a bit of relaxation and satisfaction. I woke up at 10:00am and it took me a few minutes to decide whether or not i wanted to have a light breakfast or a nice, big brunch, and skip lunch. It took a bit of convincing myself, but I decided to make a nice breakfast and just skip lunch. I ended up making poached eggs on rye, with two pieces of bacon, and potato pancakes. It was good, and woke me up, and it made me feel good.

I don't know why I woke up feeling the way I did, but I felt like I wanted to feel accomplished, feel satisfied. I didn't want to spend another day off just sitting on the couch, being annoyed by disorganization or whatever random thing was bothering me, but it wasn't some grand intentional plan or something, it kind of happened by accident.

I sat down at the computer and started talking with Ally, who was also making a to-do list, as historically she shares my love and reliance on lists. She was making a list of things to do today, as well as a list of things to bring on a trip she's taking soon, so just talking about her list made me start a small one, something just sorta switched on inside of me that said, "hey, I'm gonna do some shit today, then relax and play games and stuff afterward", as usually doing a few things around the house before relaxing makes me feel less tense... I don't know how to put it in to words really. It's like... if I just spend my whole day on the couch playing games or watching TV, I feel antsy, restless, guilty, nervous, whatever... but if I do a list of house work or something before hand, I feel like I've earned the right to sit and be lazy, and it feels completely different to me.

I pretty much made a list for each room in the house, I figure giving it a good clean would make me feel more comfortable. I started in the kitchen, where I did all the dishes, cleaned out the fridge, cleaned the counters, swept, emptied the garbage and cleaned the stove top. From there, I cleaned the mud room, vacuumed the carpet, changed the kitty litter, cleaned up the shoes and on top of the dryer and took out the garbage and recycling. After the mud room, I cleaned up the clothes from the bedroom, including just sorting through some of the laundry, as some of the clothes weren't even dirty but sitting there, so I just put away the clean clothes and made the bed, and vacuumed the carpet. I moved to the living room afterward, where I cleaned up the coffee table and DVDs and games, cleaned out the air conditioner filter of all the hair, and vacuumed the carpets. Once I was finished that, I went in to the computer room and wiped my desk, as it had dust all over it and random crumbs or little pieces of kitty litter gravel from the cats paws, and just like all the rooms, I vacuumed the floor.

At this point I had done pretty much all of the stuff on the list I had made, but I still felt a bit restless, I really felt like I had to get out of the house, and that usually means going to No Frills, but I didn't really need anything, and I'm trying to save money so I knew it would probably be a good idea if I didn't go, but after talking with Ally a bit more, I decided the fresh air would do me good, and I could pick up a few things that I could use to finish cleaning, and maybe see something to grab for dinner if I feel so inspired.

I got ready and rode the bike to No Frills while listening to the morning stream from last Thursday. I was pretty stupid, I'll admit, as I spent quite a bit of money, probably about $30 on household stuff, and $20 on food. I bought two things of Draino, one for the bathtub and one for the bathroom sink, and I also bought two more glade plugins, and some bathtub cleaner. I wanted to eat some pasta for dinner, and my idea was to just eat spaghetti, which would've cost me nothing, but I walked by the lasagna sheets and it made me want to make canelloni, which forced me to pick up ricotta cheese, mozzerella and just a couple other things. I quickly paid and got back on the bike and got home.

Once I got home I cleaned the toilet and bathtub using my newly aquired spray, and shortly after I used the draino on both sinks (as I need to about once a month). I put one of the glade plugins in the mud room and one in the bathroom, and there was already one in the kitchen, but I set them to low, just so that there is a light scent floating aruond the house. The main reason I got one for the bathroom was because it sometimes smells like wet towel and it really bothers me, so hopefully this takes care of that.

After the cleaning was done, I made the canelloni, which was the lasagna noodles, rolled with my cheese mixture in the middle, which was ricotta, cottage cheese, parmesan, salt, pepper, garlic, basil, oregano and an egg white. I then put tomato sauce on the bottom of the pan, and then spread it over top, with mozzerella, and covered it in tin foil and put it in the oven. I also prepared a nice piece of garlic bread using a baguette to eat with dinner. While eating dinner I watched an episode of Studio 60, and afterward I drank coffee and had a mars bar, while listening and organizing new music and playing a map of Defense Grid.

During the day, between various chores, I managed to fit in some game time, accomplishing various goals I had set for myself. I made it through the cave I was in, in Final Fantasy 4 for GBA. I beat two planets in Ratchet and Clank and completed four levels in La Pucelle. After dinner, I played a couple more levels of La Pucelle and like I mentioned earlier, a map in Defense Grid. I also played a few races in PGR4, and even loaded my save in Digital Devil Saga, because it's right near the end, and I want to finish it, so I want to read up a FAQ just to remind myself what I was doing, where I had been, so I could finally finish the game before moving on to a different Megaten game (like Persona 3).

At around 9:00pm, I took a sleeping pill and ran a bath, which I enjoyed with Kairi on the toilet seat. After my bath, I came out to the livingroom, put on True Blood, made some popcorn, and started writing this entry. I'm feeling pretty tired at this point, and True Blood is over, but here I am still writing. I'm probably gonna watch the Daily show and then go to bed.

Tomorrow was supposed to be this odd day at work, where I came in and only did prep for this huge gala thing we had in the morning on Wednesday. Jeff specifically told me to do nothing but prep for it, and apologized for not giving me two days off in a row, so I imagined it was going to be a strange day. Today though, I got a call from the manor (it was Julie) letting me know that the event on Wednesday was cancelled, and that I'll still work tomorrow, but I'll have Wednesday off now, as well as Thursday, giving me three days off this week, and two in a row after work tomorrow. So instead of tomorrow being this big prep day with lots to do, it's now going to be a pretty relaxed day, a chance to get ahead on other things, like soups or sauces or whatever random crap hasn't been done in ages, and that should feel good.

I'm looking forward to my two days off in a row, and I'm hoping that these recent changes to the schedule stick, as things at the manor never can be simple, but I've already accepted the idea of having two days off, so... it better happen. Lots of game playing, lots of TV watching will happen, and that's awesome! Tomorrow should be a good day, and then I can relax, so... let's hope everything works out!

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