Shattered Sun

Overheard on the weekend while at QT:

J (speaking very fast): 2 sodas @ yada, 2 frozens @ yada, 2 hotdogs, and 2 sandwiches. Clerk: Cool, got it. Terror One: Man, how did you go so fast? Clerk: Well, it’s called QuikTrip not SlowTrip, people kind of expect you to be quick…

Terror One was not amused when I laughed and said he was “pawned by the clerk”. LOL.

Can I even use that sentence anymore without it completely aging me back to the 90s? Anyway, I digress and it’s only my first sentence. I am having problems with my phone and I’m not too thrilled with it. It’s just a cruddy phone but I paid a lot of money for it and I’m disappointed that it’s having issues. However, I called Alltel about one of the internet connectivity issues it was having and not only does the chick help me fix it but she goes on to tell me that I’m paying too much for my bill! I’m like, “WTF?” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve called and no one’s mentioned to me that I could be saving money (and no, not by switching to Geico for car insurance). Anyhow, she switched my plan, assured me that I would be keeping the same features I have now, plus get free texting (woot for J!) and a larger coverage area but costs less. I’m not sure is that’s really possible but sometimes you have to take the dream pill. Guess we’ll see how it goes after my first bill on the new plan.

Weird, eh?

Slate has a great article regarding the Defense of Traditional Wedding Photography and I have to say that there’s something to be said for it. I mean, come on. We all love the candids, but there is also room in there for fantastically done shots that are posed. Sometimes I think we forget that there is a good middle ground and you don’t have to go extreme to be noticed as a wedding photographer (or any type of photographer, for that matter). Someday, I might shoot a wedding. For fun at first. You know, shadow someone who’s getting paid for it. In the meantime, I’m just going to continue trying to churn out some awesome photos and not just snapshots.

This is a stupendous tip for parting with those items you don’t think you really want to part with:

Incubate and Date! I recently reorganized my utensil drawer in my kitchen. I love kitchen gadgets and it seems mine had multiplied while I wasn’t looking. Three pair of tongs. Twelve extra knives. An extra ice cream scoop. A nut cracker? (I have no clue the last time I needed a nut cracker.) Instead of trying to justify why I needed to keep all these nifty gadgets, I loaded them into an extra bin to incubate for a month. I kept the bin in my basement. If I was in my kitchen and suddenly needed a nut cracker, a quick trip down the stairs and I was back in business. I’d take the nut cracker out of the bin and back into the utensil drawer. Essentially, I had a month to figure out if I really needed any of these gadgets or not. Guess what? I didn’t make a single trip to the incubator. (Not even for the nutcracker as shocking as that may seen.) So, everything in the incubator is going straight to charity. Give the incubator a try next time you’re on the fence about items you encounter in an organizing project. Just be sure to set a date and then, when the date comes, anything left in the incubator, goes!

Lovingly lifted (with permission!) from the lovely Aby. Aby Garvey is a professional organizer and the owner of simplify 101, inc. Her mission is to help you create time and space for what matters most in your home and life. Aby is the author of the e-book “the happy scrapper - simple solutions to get organized and get scrapping!” Visit the simplify 101 website for organizing ideas and to subscribe to Aby’s organizing email newsletter.

Now that we’re almost completely done moving, I’m going to start doing this. I want no more boxes hiding out and never looked into… Ever… (Of course, don’t we all have some odd little boxes like that? I swear, they multiply in the night!)