Tom & Alissa

I’m not good at coming up with subject lines. I also cannot title articles, stories, books, or movies unless a bolt of lightning hits me. Not a common occurrence.

Somehow all my deadlines seem to come up right before Christmas; at work, in freelance design and writing work. I purposely decided not to take on any more writing projects with deadlines in December so that I could have some sanity this month, between the painting and the programming and oh yes, Christmas!

We are nearing the end of le painting project. The light at the end of the tunnel becomes brighter each day. It actually looks quite good, better than I expected. I think we’re both a little bummed out that the bathroom and kitchen still need painting, probably in early 2007. In theory, we could just not paint them, but there’s stains from a cappuccino incident covering all four walls and the ceiling in the kitchen, and the bathroom paint looks pretty dingy. At least there’s no hideous moldings determined to turn our straight painting lines into ghastly bumps and holes. Mmhmm.

Being two weeks before Christmas, this is also busy catering season. Tom worked last night, and when I said good morning and goodbye this morning, he sleepily mumbled something about having a last-minute lunch catering job today. And another one Thursday! Good time of year for a little extra cash.

For my part, I stopped by Target to buy Christmas lights (unsuccessfully) last night on my way home from work. Then I remembered I had a Bath & Body Works giftcard from my birthday, so I stopped by there, and then ducked into Payless for nonskid pads for the inside of my more treacherous shoes. It’s handy living near the only really big shopping center in Brooklyn.

I got home and scrubbed paint chips off the bathroom floor, did the dishes, put away the laundry, and generally cleaned up the apartment as best I could. It’s a bit embarrassing how much I’m looking forward to cleaning my apartment when the painting’s all done. I felt so much more cheery after I finished cleaning last night. I think I have a distinct love of bringing order from chaos. That would make sense - my favorite jobs have always been those where I take large piles of mess or intensely disorganized situations and make them work.

I had vacation time to burn through before the end of the year, so I’m off from work tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday. Lots of plans and lots to do in that timeframe, but it will be nice to get enough sleep, for once. I’m going to a screening of The Wind That Shakes the Barley on Friday (it won the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year).

Randomly: related to my fixation on turning mess into order, I have a penchant for making lists. I’ve justified this obsession in the last year, when I realized that if I just do the things on the list, it’s even more successful. So, I tend to make a lot of lists at year’s end - favorite books/movies/music from the last year, books/movies/music to check out in the upcoming year, resolutions, plans, etc. I feel more organized going into the New Year if I do so. Call me a freak and stay tuned for said lists’ appearances.