So, it's been a while...

It's been over three years since I have posted much on my yahoo adoption groups. I literally went from posting and reading a minimum of three hours a day to a maximum of once a month and that's on a good month. My original reason was I needed to give myself a time out. There was someone on my favorite list who was able to push my buttons and ruin an otherwise perfectly good day. To this day I am thankful for my good friend Barb who reminded me of the movie "War Games" and the line from the movie that has now become one of my top coping mantras in dealing with difficult people: "The only way to win is not to play."

So I quit playing. Just for a few days I thought, and then I'll jump back in. That was the original reason. But I didn't jump back in and there were many reasons for that. This blog deals with one of them. When I finally pulled away from the computer I realized I could barely walk through my house anymore. Besides bordering on obesity from too much sitting at the computer, my entire house was a disaster. Clothes scattered everywhere. Papers. Coffee mugs. Toys. Every table surface covered with JUNK! I figured I should do one of two things; either clean it up or buy a pole vault.

Too fat for the pole vault I decided to FIX IT, organize, discard, and go back to my beloved yahoo lists when I was done. How long could it take? A week? Two weeks? I had no money but with no job except for trickles of transcription for my business, I had plenty of time.

Now it is over three years later and I'm far from done. Some of it is not my fault, I got a real job with real benefits. I have two kids, two cats, one dog, 7 hamsters and I have lost count of the guinea pigs we have taken in. Needless to say, there were a lot of interruptions. I kept waiting until the latest interruption was over but then I finally realized, Life IS interruptions. So last Thanksgiving when my trip to Ohio to visit my brother and help him with my late father's house was abruptly canceled, I used those five free days to start the process.

But I miss my groups. I miss writing. I miss writing A LOT. It is cathartic for me, eases my stress and most importantly -- writing enhances my life. Sifting through my clutter I have ironically discovered some books buried in the piles that deal with clutter. Probably sent to me by my mom, who died 11 years ago. So yes, clutter is not a new problem for me, although it had never gotten to this level before. The first book I found, "Clutter's Last Stand" advised when trying to determine whether to keep an item to ask yourself, "How does this enhance my life?"

As I waded through the piles it was easy to see that most of my things did NOT enhance my life. Just the opposite. So many of my possessions needed to move on. My yahoo groups enhanced my life but not at the expense of keeping me from dealing with my real life, my real job, my family and friends in real time. I have to keep moving forward with this so can't go back to my groups yet.

That said I am AT LEAST far enough along to take the time to let my friends know where I am in the process and when I really will be back. Man, I MISS THEM.

This blog is also for anyone else out there in blog-land who can share my misery, my failures, my triumphs or offer advice. This whole decluttering process would be SO MUCH easier if I had some company and since my house is not yet up to standards of having real life company, I am at least far enough along to welcome people in cyberly.

For one thing, I no longer need a pole vault.

The Mad Typist