Thoughts on Thursday: On Kobe and my junk room.

• It's been a weird week for me. First of all, there's the tragic Kobe Bryant news.  I have shed more tears for a man I really knew nothing about... I mean, I don't profess to be a big basketball fan.  Let's face it:  I was a fan for approximately a month, between May & June of last year, while the Toronto Raptors made their run to the championship.  Total bandwagoner.  But even those of us who don't pay much attention to the game have heard of Kobe Bryant.  He was a legend.  If you asked me, with my limited knowledge of the NBA, who the best basketball players in history are, I would probably say #1 Michael Jordan, #2 Kobe Bryant. Hearing that the helicopter he was in with his daughter Gianna and seven other people had a crashed on Sunday, with no survivors, well... it was heart-breaking, to say the least.
  
• Last night, I went back on Youtube and found some of the old interviews Jimmy Fallon had done with Kobe.  I remembered him being on the show not long ago, because I recalled them talking about how his wife was expecting their fourth girl.  (That baby girl is now 7 months old.) But the part that really rattled me was when Jimmy asked him if it was true that he didn't want his younger daughters to remember him as a basketball player; that he wanted to be remembered as an innovator, a producer, an artist.  Just hearing them talk about "how he wanted to be remembered" by his children... it was haunting and bittersweet and devastating.  We just never know what the future holds. 
  
• I can't stop thinking of his poor wife and children who are left to mourn them.  It is tragic enough to lose one close family member, but to lose two... one being a 13-year-old girl who was already showing signs of being as amazing at the game of basketball as her father... ugh.  Shattering.  I join with the millions of others who are sending all their love and prayers to the Bryant family and the families of the others that lost their lives on Sunday.  May their faith carry them through.
  
  
  
  
• Moving on from the Kobe stuff, because it is just too damned sad... 
• I had plans on Monday that fell through, and then the water was off in town all day, so I decided it was the perfect day to start tackling the junk room.  A job I have put off and procrastinated on and avoided at all costs... It was time.  I can't tell you how discouraging it was to look in this room, and the piles and piles of junk that have accumulated.  It is the room where everything that doesn't have a place gets dumped.  It's SUPPOSED to be my Craft Room, but there has been no space in there to do crafts for ages.  It really came to a head for me back in the fall, when my landlords told me they were having a window repairman come in to check the windows (some of them keep sliding open from the top).  I shuddered at the thought of an outsider seeing this room, and thinking, "My God, she's a hoarder."  I decided that my Winter Project this year had to be cleaning out the junk room.
  
• So I started on Monday.  I hauled a TON of crap out of that room, and it still looked like a disaster zone.  *sigh*  I literally worked at it from 10 AM to 5 PM, with only a short break for lunch, and the visible progress was so small that I wanted to cry.  I tried to take solace in the fact that at least two of the biggest disasters - my book shelf and my gift wrapping supplies - had been organized.  Then I got obsessed with the rest of it.  I spent all day Tuesday thinking about that room - what stuff had to stay, what stuff had to go, how I wanted to re-arrange things.  As soon as I got home from work, I dove back in.  I made a lot of progress again, but still... STILL!!! it looked like a war zone.  
  
• Yesterday I battled a sinusy headache all day, which really had me feeling out of sorts, but I refused to let this room cleaning be put on pause.  I feared if I took one day off, I might never go back.  Last night I was on a mission to really finish it up.  I packed up the remaining items that I had assigned for yard sale or donation and stored them in the basement.  Everything else got hauled to garbage or recycling.  By the time I was done, I was exhausted and my head was pounding, but I felt so relieved.  I can see carpet.  Things look organized, for the most part.  The hardest part of this job was done.  Hallelujah!!
  
• It's still not completely finished... The table is loaded with books that I am giving away.  I'm going to keep them for another week to see if anyone wants to peruse them; any left by next weekend will be boxed up and donated to our local library.  The closet is also still jammed up with stuff that I should re-organize.  I have a shelving unit I bought to store my yarn in and I still have to assemble it and figure out where to put it.  And I hate the pile of bins and boxes in the back corner of the room, but that's Christmas and there is literally nowhere else to put them.  But at least if someone walks into this room now, they won't be shocked and horrified.  At least, I hope not. LOL!
• What else is new... Oh, I have been on a quest to crochet a toque that I like.  My first attempt, which I now call "Marge Simpson" was a total disaster.  It was supposed to be a slouchy toque, but because I used a bulkier yarn than was recommended, it ended up being too stiff and won't slouch properly.  It will actually stand straight up if you want it to... a la Marge Simpson hair.  Charming.  The second attempt was a pattern I purchased, but it ended up feeling way too small and just kind of looked funny.  The third attempt, which I finished last night after the junk room clean-up was finished, is my favourite by far!  It worked up fairly quickly and it fits properly.  Finally a winner!!
  
  
  
  
• Aside from finishing that toque, I haven't really got to do my "usual" stuff that I enjoy this week because of cleaning out that damn room.  Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I focused on it and got it mostly done, but I haven't watched any shows or listened to any podcasts or done any cooking or baking... The things I love to do this time of year have been on the back-burner.  So I've decided I'm taking this coming weekend "off".  The rest of the house needs to be cleaned, but it's going to have to wait.  I want to find a Netflix show to get lost in, and I want to crochet a shawl (I have a pattern I've been dying to try); I want to bake cookies and try a recipe for bacon leek pasta (I have leeks in my fridge that need to get used up).  This weekend is going to be my reward for working so hard to clean up that room!!
• My sinusy headache is much better today but it's still lingering.  Usually I associate them with bad weather coming - rain or snow - but there's nothing really in the forecast right now.  blech.  Yesterday I tried battling it with just the Peppermint Halo, no Advil, and it was unsuccessful.  It seems I need the combination of the two to really have any effect.  Friggin headaches.

Well, that's it for me for this week... Hoping for cheerier days and fun ahead!!