Past, Present, and Future

Too Cloying By Half
Originally uploaded by Rozanne.

Yesterday I retackled the clutter-clearing project. I got sidetracked almost immediately after running across the diary I kept when I was 11 years old. What a spectacularly unpromising kid I was! The diary is a gold mine of misspellings, non-sequiturs, and perfunctory statements. Since it was a five year diary, I only needed to fill four lines a day, yet it's very apparent that I struggled mightily to come up with those four precious lines of material, which may explain my preoccupation with the weather. Here are a few of the more exciting (and hilarious) entries.

January 15
It was 20º below 0º and it WAS cold! We looked for station wagons because of the new baby we are getting in July.

February 5
Today was Saturday and hardly anything good happened except I quit 4-H. And now I have to go to bed early because I’m sick.

February 29
Today was a warm day most of the snow melted. It is still 37º at 8:28. Mom went to school. The girls saw a movie on mensturuture.

April 17
Today it got up to 72º in the shade! It still is 60º. We had to pick up a piece of junk at recess and drop it in a bag.

June 22
Today Molly had to come home. I drew pictures of her because she is so MEAN + DUMB. She is moving in Aug. Yea!

September 21
Today I had a spelling test I got a B on it. On spelling workbook I got an E!! It surprized me.

September 27
Today we took achevment tests. My nose kept running. I got to miss choir.

November 27
Today was an icky day, there isn’t one good thing I could say for today exept I made a pitcher out of clay.

December 5
In band we had to play “Areeita” 10,000 times. It sounded good at first but everyone hates that song.

December 19
I was chosen for being on a Debate Against going to the moon.

Holy moly! How did I not flunk 5th grade? Supposedly, I was a good student, but you sure couldn’t tell by reading my diary. I love that I was so “surprized” that I got a bad grade on my spelling workbook. Plus, what the heck was going on at my school with these debates about not going to the Moon? (BTW: Apparently, I presented a convincing argument against it, because a few pages later I noted that I won the debate. I have absolutely no memory of that.)

On to the present. Stacy dubbed this past week the “week of sloth” and I have to say I don’t have much to show for my time off either. Maybe that’s OK. I did spend a few hours talking on the phone to two friends I hadn’t talked to in a long time, and B and I got out for a couple of walks.

Today we took another one of the walks from the oft-mentioned and praised Portland Hill Walks book by the tremendously talented Laura O. Foster. Today’s walk was right in our own neighborhood and yet it led us to hidden alleys and rustic stairways we’d never discovered—pretty amazing since we do a lot of walking and exploring in our little bailiwick. We strolled by many humongo houses and Foster filled us in on the history of the mammoth Autzen Mansion, which is for sale and could be yours if you have a spare $2,350,000 laying around (selling points: a shower with seven shower heads and a special alcove for your grand piano).

Just as I started to run out of steam, we came in sight of Gustav’s Bier Stube. A bier stube is much more my speed than a mansion and Foster, as if able to read my mind, suggested that we stop in for a meal. Happy Hour was in full swing. Perfect! I had a pint of weiss bier and a plate of not-at-all-Germanic fish and chips. B made up for that by having the tri-sausage plate. Highly Teutonic and more than adequate as fuel for a two-mile walk uphill back to the dinky little shack we call home.

The future. OK. Here are my resolutions for 2006, which, if my past record is anything to go by, I will forget about completely by the end of the month.

1) Whip the dinky little shack into shape by getting some more art on the walls and more furniture in it. Progress on this front has been extremely slow and trepident, because of my fear of making costly decor-related mistakes (some of which we are currently living with), but I’ve spent far too much of my life living in halfway houses—that is, houses (or apartments) that are only halfway what they could be.

2) Update my pathetically schlumpy and egregiously outdated wardrobe. As everyone knows, I am a self-diagnosed fashion dunderhead, which every few months prompts me to write a blog entry bemoaning my lack of style. Time to quit moaning and start shopping.

3) Have more dinner parties.

4) Be more tolerant and mindful of others.

5) Be less haphazard about how I run my life. (Hoo-boy. Wish me lots of luck on this one!)