It's Like I Don't Even Know Me

July 11, 2020 Earnest Painter

What I’ve learned from staying home during the Pandemic.

The Pandemic has altered my life in ways that I hadn’t anticipated. While the disease itself is horrific, the effects I have seen in my personal life have been somewhat positive. I talk about that a bit here in a piece I wrote in response to a challenge. Being forced to stay home has taught me that I can actually enjoy it. I might be going off the deep end a little bit, but I enjoyed the ten days that I had to stay home from work so much that I want to work from home now. Not as using a VPN to log into the organization’s server, but as in, working for myself. There is a tendency to want to take huge leaps, and I’m all for it. But, there is also a tendency to not think about everything that comes along with that leap if you are successful. So, I’ll be contemplating it for a while.

In the meantime, I thought I’d share a few things that I have learned. Some of them will be obvious to some people, to the point of having been second nature and never even considering it, but for me they are novel ideas.

* * *

Working outside makes you feel better.

I enjoy trimming shrubs. I even enjoy loading the limbs etc. into the bed of the truck and taking them to the wood pile in the back. Now don’t get crazy; I don’t want to do this every day or every week even (though every week would be ideal for the maintenance of the yard), but I enjoy it.

I still don’t like TV. Staying at home has not changed that.

Working for small bits of time on different things is helpful. Write for thirty minutes, go put laundry in, fold the clothes. Write some more. Sit outside with the cat. Do dishes and clean kitchen. Take a learning tutorial. All in 30-minute chunks or so. You can even take naps; just don’t nap for longer than 30 minutes.

Lists are wonderful tools to keep me focused and help me get more done.

I don’t like mowing the yard. Okay, I knew this one, but it has been reinforced. While working outside has benefits, and I feel better for it, I don’t enjoy doing this particular one, and it would be one of the first things I’d outsource if I could. But I do, in fact, feel better after mowing.

A decluttered space really is more conducive to productivity.

My neighborhood is interesting. I do a lot of the work while sitting at the dining room table in front of windows, and I enjoy watching people, dogs, horses, John Deere tractors, and cars pass in front of the windows.

If you sit in a rocking chair with a cat, she will rub her face across the arms furiously. I do not know why, but this has been proven over and over by more than one cat and more than one rocking chair.

Drinking water is very fulfilling. Preferably with purchased ice, because the stuff made in home freezers tastes funny.

A clean kitchen makes me feel better.

I do not like wasps. I can live in harmony with honey bees, but wasps are aggressive and they prefer to live right by the doorways. They are evil and they must be destroyed. Plus, their tiny little waists make me feel bad about my life choices. I relate better to honey bees and their figures.

Rooms smell better if you clean the cat litter more than once in the morning and once in the evening.

The best ideas come in the shower and when driving. (I knew this already, but staying in place has really brought it home.) (So to speak.)

My cats respond well to me being around. I don’t have to be giving them attention 100% of the time; just being around make them happy.

Washing smaller loads of clothes and folding them straight out of the dryer makes an undesirable chore less undesirable.

If I don’t make time to read for pleasure, I will not read for pleasure Again, obvious, but I’ve done a lot of reading while sitting in coffee shops, which I cannot do at the moment. So, I have to carve out time at home to read, just as I would have carved out time to go to the coffee shop.

I am capable of being tidy.

I am capable of being productive.

Back to Find That Drawing Board

March 12, 2020 Earnest Painter

We are now in March, three months into the new year. I am working on ramping up my writing and painting output. Yesterday I went into the office I have at home... finally. I've been afraid to go in there for weeks, afraid of dealing with what was in there. In December we had an art show in the studio where my office is located, so stuff just kind of got pushed to the back and ProPanels were thrown up to hang art. The office was a mess to begin with, but shoving stuff out of the way kind of pushed the mess over the edge, and I'm still trying to recover. The goal is to put my office, not only back in order, but to make it more organized and a more pleasant place to be. I began by pulling everything out of the bookcase. The bookcase, you see, has been in the corner. I had a desk against the wall next to it and another computer desk on the opposite wall. The writing desk was moved from one wall to another so that I could be at the computer and swivel to the right to be at the writing desk. So, suddenly my bookcase was 6 inches from the side of my writing desk, which is not an ideal location.

Having pulled everything out, I was able to consider what was what. I have a lot of material related to genealogy—books that my ancestors are mentioned in, for example. I have books about politics, fiction I need to read, books that have been signed and some that are old and delicate. Some of these were not actually on the bookcase; they were lying around because the bookcase was full of unrelated stuff.

I pulled the bookcase over to the edge of my space, closer to the front door of the studio. Now, it has more space to breathe. I have tentatively put things into it. I love books and I collect them, but I want this to have more than books on it, I want to display other things as well. So, I'm considering what sort of reading/written material needs to be in this space particular where I write and paint. Unread fiction doesn't seem to be what is called for in this office. Art technique and political intrigue are much more fitting. Old books and books that are signed and or inscribed need a safer place to be than a studio that shape-shifts for different events.

Artwork definitely needs to be around. While I'm trying to be creative I need to be surrounded by ceramic pottery and woodwork that I love. I also need other interesting things... an old decorative doorknob or an interesting bottle. There is a fine line between hoarding and collecting, and I haven't seen that line in quite a long time. It's been buried under stuff. Now my cleaning ideas seem to be growing outside of my bookcase, which is good because that was just a starting place.

I dedicate the month of March to Finding my Office. My first novelette is being reviewed by an editor at my publisher and I need to be working on my next novel. I need to create more paintings to go along with my novels, because... well because I like the idea and I want that to be a part of my art. So, my first right step this month is to organize my space.

How is your 2020 going?

I Need a Moment

December 5, 2018 Earnest Painter

I need some time to get my life together. Just… a moment, maybe. I look at my room and it has so much potential. But, there’s so much clutter, that it remains merely potential. It’s not the beautiful space I know it can be.

We just bought a bedroom set, a beautiful Amish-finished bed frame that has headboard, foot board and drawers. Because there are drawers, nothing can get tossed or lost under the bed. This is particularly nice, because nothing good ever happens under the bed, especially when you have cats. Aside from the bed, I also got a dresser and a nightstand. The set is beautiful, truly, and it’s the first time I’ve bought furniture like this.

It would be even more beautiful if the rest of my room weren't a disaster area. I try to be tidy, but I fail. There is a way to have the things I love around me without feeling like a hoarder; I just have to figure it out. For example, when my father passed, one thing I got was his footlocker. I enjoy seeing it. I just need to remove the cat carrier, the framed posters and other things that I'm too... *throws head back, with back of hand across forehead* tired to deal with. All of it lies more or less out in the open, distracting.

Having cats doesn't help in this respect. Fur is everywhere and if a hairball happens it's going to be on something I love, not the linoleum floor. This discourages one from putting things out that they love. It also discourages one from tidying up at the end of a work day when all you want is to relax and read. You spend all day at work, and then get home to work? It’s a good thing I love my cats. Their fur is really straining our relationship.

I need a month off. That would be about right, a month. It may seem excessive, but I’m convinced that this is the magic number - enough time to rest, and then just when I’m getting bored it’s on to the next thing. The entire first week is to sleep. I need about a week of uninterrupted sleep before I can even think about a task as monumental as cleaning my room, or getting my life together. Then I need some time to go through things and purge. I would appreciate the things I have much more if I could see them. And, I need to organize. I like having a place for everything and everything in its place. When I get REALLY organized we'll be able to switch the artwork out throughout the year. Spring, summer, Michaelmas, Hallowe'en and Christmas. That way all of the artwork we have won’t be out at once, and we’ll be able to appreciate it more.

Also, I need to write a bestseller so that I can be a homemaker. I understand that writing is work, but right now I’m doing it while working a full-time job. I want to just be able to ditch the full-time employment and stay home. I can write from the dining room table; I generally do anyway. (Don't get judgy. Agatha Christie said in her Autobiography that only for one short period did she have a dedicated office. Mostly she just wrote from whatever flat surface she had available.) Then I could do housework and cook dinner. How much commute time would I save? I could have lunch ready most days. Either this is a brilliant idea or (more likely) I'm delusional. Also, I have to have a good enough bestseller to be able to afford a cleaning person and a someone to cut the lawn. I'm not good at housework. I prefer to scratch the cats behind the ears as I pass them, walking from one room of my beautiful, clean home to another.

So, that's my plan. It's nearly midnight and I have my life all figured out. Sadly, I have to drive to work tomorrow. I'd better get some sleep.

Welcome to my Hoard

March 9, 2018 Earnest Painter

My office/workspace is in desperate need of cleaning, so I thought I'd write about it. I have had this workspace for about two months, and already it looks like a hoarder's warehouse. But, what about that? I've written about hoarding before. It was mostly about a friend of mine who took it to the level of art, but now I'm looking at my reflection in the glass of those prints I had made and wondering...

I suppose for a moment I could toss aside the much-used word, 'hoard'. Perhaps what I'm looking at is just a mess. Perhaps I'm not a hoarder, just a slob. I'm relatively certain that there is space to store all of this neatly; I simply haven't done it. That was my plan today, except that it got derailed by my desire to take pictures of it and write about it. (This really isn't ONLY a way to avoid cleaning.)

And then there's the harsh word, 'slob'. I am fond of it since hearing Kory Stamper (author of one of the books in this picture) use it in a Merriam Webster Ask the Editor video on the plural of Octopus. (Fun fact; Kory wrote on Twitter that in doing the audiobook of Word by Word she discovered that she cannot pronounce "some slob".) Maybe I'm not a slob after all. Maybe this is how creative minds work. I explored that idea before, and I'm here to defend it again. But, this time it's personal.

Books, Frames and Tiles

Magazines and tools

Not my mess, but still interesting

Projects I've Done

Side View

A Stack of Interesting

The way I see it, there are two main reactions to the pictures I've posted. Some people could have a mixture of both, but most people I know would probably have a very strong reaction in the direction or the other.

First reaction: Horror. Disgust. Urge to clean. Make it go away. Stop.

There is a lot to be said for keeping things tidy. It helps the mind be calm, it makes you feel comfortable. It brings peace. My friend, Tamara, is the queen of this. "There is a place for everything, and just keep everything in its place. Then you're done." It's true. When I visit her home it's calming, it's beautiful, it's peaceful and she seems happy. So, she'd probably want my workspace to be cleaned immediately, before doing anything else. With good reason. I could be much more productive if I could find the countertop, rather than forever shifting stuff this way and that.

Second reaction: Wonder. Wow. Curiosity. Intrigue. Creative spark.

This describes me more than the first, but mostly when it comes to other people's spaces. So, let me break this into two parts: My Mess and Other People's Messes. I will say, though, that the idea behind this one is not the mess, per se, but the collection of stuff – the tendency to hoard pretty things.

Other people's hoarding: This is magic. This is me when I was very young – before-school young – and we lived in a house that had a shack on it, a shack full of trinkets and knickknacks. I'd sneak in there and look in wonder at the things on the shelves, and think about what else could be in the boxes. It was stolen time; I wasn't supposed to go in there, which made it that much more intriguing. More recently we helped my dear friend, Richella, clean her studio because she was too sick to do it herself. We had very little time to do it in, and so much to clean, but everywhere around me were antique door knobs and gemstones, lamps and bottles. Picture frames were put in one area (some of them with pictures still in them) in case she finally got around to taking up painting. She surrounded herself with pretty, fun things and this (in my humble opinion) kept her creativity flowing. When I go to an estate sale there is STUFF. Everywhere there is stuff and I have to look at all of it. The more cluttered the better. This has led to problems in my own home.

My mess: When I walk in and see this I'm mildly disappointed in myself. I know how to keep things clean. I try to live by the adage, "A place for everything and everything in its place." Other people I know tend more toward the "Out of sight, out of mind" method of cleaning, but it makes me crazy if I can't find what I'm looking for when I know where it's supposed to be. Still, I enjoy seeing the tiles that I've been working on. I see the foam backing and I am reminded of the project that I acquired those for. Creativity does begin to kick in, even if it is just my own humdrum things that I've already seen.

There is also the question of what specifically it is I'm seeing. If I'm looking at a workspace full of trash that needs to be taken to the dumpster, but it's been raining for a week and the dumpster is full and I don't have shoes on and I just don't want to do it, that's one thing. But, if I see tiles that I've worked on, and blank tiles next to them – that sparks creativity. Paint and paint brushes pull me in, as does paper. Books are happy to look at anywhere. I will grant you that I still believe these things should be in their proper place, but seeing this sort of mess is different than just seeing dirty clothes, dishes or other such horrors.

I love to see other people's artwork. In these pictures I have small plates by an incredibly talented ceramic artist named Kym Owens and a galaxy pendant by Eric Mort. These should have places to be displayed, and they will eventually. But, when I see them in this clutter, there is a spark of happy inside my reaction.

One thing about all of this stuff is the effect it has on a person's state of mind. When I walk into my bedroom I see the things I'm looking for – the dresser, the bed, the sofa. I tune out the cloths on the floor, the books stacked on the dresser, the things stuck into the visible nook of the antique armoir. All of that tuning out takes work and after a while it can wear you down. How much nicer to walk into a neat room with everything dusted and orderly. How much more peaceful that is. It's probably the key thing to making a space into a home. I've just never been terribly good at it.

In my life I think there is a healthy tension between the need to be tidy and the creative wonder of things. At work I tend to be more orderly, mostly because there are others around who see it and I want to make an impression. At home the struggle is real and constant. Like Richella, if I had 10,000 square feet, I would have a 10,000 square foot mess given 6 months. So, now I shall clean. I just wanted to take a moment and put down – again – the benefits of seeing stuff. This has been interesting, but my mind is tired of seeing all of it. I need an orderly desk and workspace.

Thank you for reading.

Disk Notebook

August 14, 2017 Earnest Painter

So, I saw this at Office Depot, by TUL. And, I just had to have it. I waited a week and I still had to have it.

It's possible that I was just captured by the idea of something new and fun. This is all of those things. It seems innovative enough. As I said, I waited a while... and then ran to the nearest Office Depot to find my notebook. I chose the Junior size, because I like the smaller notebook feel. Also, I chose purple.

As I researched exactly how it works, I discovered that the idea of disc-bound notebooks was not unique to TUL™ or OfficeDepot/OfficeMax. Martha Stewart has her own, and so does Staples. I haven't seen them at Michael's, and I'm not gonna lie; I'm a little disappointed. They seem to be pushing 'Agendas' right now; it seems like this would fit right in.

I should have taken a picture of my notebook, because it went everywhere with me. (Except that one time...)

I'm at a coffee shop without my notebook. It's like a part of me is missing. #writers #journalist pic.twitter.com/MolWPpNCk8
— Earnie Painter (@RatherEarnest) August 4, 2017

I had been looking for a project management system, and this seemed as likely a candidate as any. I can add a calendar in there if I need to. One of the cool ideas is that you can hole-punch any piece of paper and add it to your notebook (assuming you shell out for the hole-punch.) There was nothing stopping us from doing that with 3-ring binders except the space between the rings. The space between the discs does lend itself much more easily to throwing random sheets of paper into the mix.

I soon decided that the small discs were not enough for me. I had ideas of sections that I wanted to divide the notebook into – writing ideas, journal, grocery list, project management sections... So, I acquired a set of the larger-sized discs and quickly disassembled my note-taking system and re-assembled it in the larger version.

My new and improved (?) Note-taking system by TUL™

Now it was just awkward – another reason I would have liked to have taken a before picture. While it was getting crowded and stuffed, at least it held together. These larger disks flop around a bit. I need more paper to hold it all together.

I should have bought more paper while I was at it

I've put all of my pocket dividers and page dividers and everything I have into this. We'll see how it holds up. I'll carry it around and see how it works. It was a bit of trouble to get it all transferred, so I need to work with it before I make the decision to transfer it all back.

All in all, there is a variety of things that you can use to make this work. I do keep it with me and I do write in it. So far so good. We'll see if it can help keep me organized. This together with Evernote and I will be unstoppable.

Keep in touch ♥

Read Carmela’s Outside. A novella inspired by cats.

bemol Ardiente

What I’ve learned from staying home during the Pandemic.