wbmsic

I actually sat down to count how many books I’ve collected over the last few months and found that the total that I’ve bought for this year is 37. To be fair, I found a 15 book set of Roald Dahl for less than 20$ at Costco, but I’ve been pretty diligent about picking a book or three when I stop in at random book stores here, there and everywhere.

I was once again having a really hard time trying to find the donation bags, started calling around at a few stores that had no idea what I was talking about (to later find out that they’re no longer a collection point). I tried to pick up some bags at the store down the street from me, however, they were adamant that I had to buy the books from them in order to have the donation bags. I got so frustrated that I finally called the organization that runs the collection and asked them if they could just mail me 30-50 bags, please and thank you. The woman that I spoke to was so appreciative and wanted to know if I had run a book drive to raise them. I explained that it was just something that I really enjoyed doing through the year. They were especially thrilled that I was donating English books (in my mainly French province). To be fair, I did assemble a handful of French books this year as well.

So yay! Super points for me! Especially for calling direct to the source to resolve the frustration of dealing with the bookstores.

So it’s been a pretty stressful weekend at work and in my personal life. I’d like to ask for:

1) More social interactions with friends over August

I’ll play with:
Reaching out to some friends I haven’t spoken to by text
Remembering that friendships at work do count.
Framing in-law (and company) outings as more fun (remembering the buffering space that I need before a noisy, overwhelming outing)
Letter writing

2) More quality times alternatives with myself (versus mindless check-check-checking of the Facebook-google-reader-hotmail-facebook, spin-spin-spin hamster style)

I’ll play with:

Shiva Nata time, including more writing
More writing here, pondering and meandering
Decluttering and more actions on the physical
Including tackling the mending pile
Coloring the Monster Manual
Plotting future mini trips (Vermont, Boston, NYC, etc…)

3) More separation of work and life

I’m already getting better at this one, but I’ll still play with:

1,2,3 type routines when leaving the office
Enter as you wish to be in it. Exit as you wish it to continue.
Planting reminders about why we work (pictures of kitty, pictures of the house downpayment, buttmonster on the desk, etc)

I’ll review this over the next week.

The last three that I ordered from Chapters got here. I found out that the boyfriend had never heard of Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, so I read it out loud to him. The problem is that I’m running out of favorite books to gift, but I will probably buy some doubles and I have plenty of time to ask for advicings and suggestions.

Fourteen books to go!