There's a big snowstorm on the way to Chicago and I figure on a snow day tomorrow.  So today I started a Herculean project, one that would take several days to finish...cleaning the attic.  I grabbed a trouble light and pushed up the creepy doors in the creepy attic hallway.  Good, nothing moved. I started to organize that dusty brown space;  Christmas here,  Summer there, memories everywhere.  It was pretty overwhelming,  from the breadth of choices to the depth of feelings to the dirt that was everywhere coating everything.  Sounds like a pretty good metaphor; toys in the attic indeed!

My real goal is to throw away anything that's useless or that hasn't been used in some time.  That's easier to promise than to achieve.  What usually happens is that I repackage and reorganize the same stuff.   The result is that I have more and more stuff, but at least I know where is. 

On the best cleaning/reorganizing days I find something that had been lost or that stirs up a great memory.  I found my Jerry Jeff Walker albums the other day...great college memories.  I found a candle given to me by my first boyfriend.  I found a picture of my cheerleading team--ugh--bad memories behind those big smiles.  I found a Valentine's Day card from my husband-to-be from three months before our wedding.  Priceless!  So now I'm headed back up the creepy stairs in the creepy hallway.  There I'll find a dirty brown room lit only by a trouble light.  I can't wait to see what I turn up.

It's official...I'm now a Mac girl.  After frying my last home computer with a zap of static electricity  (honest, I just touched it and then..bzzzzzzt!  It wasn't my fault)  my computer guy finally set up our new Mac Mini.   I love it!   It's quiet, it's small, it's fast;  it doesn't talk back or stay out after midnight.    What a great addition to the family.  

The girls had been pestering me to go Mac ever since I bought the late, not lamented, deservedly scorched monstrosity that lurked in our computer hutch for the last three years.  That computer was a beast.  Large and loud, the abomination was slow and often broken.  It once lost its memory.  The thing had lightning bolts painted on the side of its black metal cabinet.  It would have made a fine casket for Pikachu. 

I can now listen to music and hear music,  not a loud whirr.  My computer space is clean and uncluttered.  I can navigate, e-mail, surf, message, burn, calendar, cut & paste...there just aren't enough hours in the day.  The 21st century is such a pleasant place.

It's amazing how you can get used to something and stay with it because you didn't know any better.   Now...a MacBook for my birthday??

I have mixed feelings about Friday's office party.  I was hoping for more fun and less awkwardness, but when you're wearing a suit and tie and your boss is wearing a short black skirt and black patent pumps it's hard to feel anything but awkward. Even after a few beers I couldn't relax.  I couldn't figure out how to act.

I was by my desk having a beer when the big boss, a large glass of white wine in hand, walked over and sat on the desk.  I didn't know what to do, where to look, or what to say.  I shoved my free hand in my pocket and stood there like an idiot.   The boss turned to the Assistant standing next to me, legs crossed, black pump dangling from a toe, and they started talking about this and that.  THEY were comfortable, why not me?

It just didn't feel right. All I wanted was to make a point about not having to wear a skirt in the winter.  I didn't really want to wear men's clothes--or, God forbid, be a man, even for a day.   It just felt...weird.  Weird to be dressed that way at work, weird to be using the men's room.  And when someone called me Mr. Davis.  That was too much.  The 20 and 30 somethings were having a great time with this, maybe too great a time with this.  For me it was...disconcerting. 

I'm still waiting for a change in that all skirts all the time rule, but after the party I'm afraid the rule will become all skirts all the time for everyone.