God I hope it’s not permanent!

Posted on January 5, 2009 by borysSNORC

Such an exciting day today – I bet you can tell by my little user pic that I went grocery shopping…. and everyone knows how much I abhor grocery shopping especially over the holiday season. And don’t get me started on how depressing it is to find yourself in the supermarket aisle checking the damned eggs to make sure they are at least unbroken before I put them in the trolley… getting them home in that state is another matter entirely!

But now I’ve discovered a new special little grocery shopping related torture… packing the groceries into the fridge and getting them to fit in. Mr K has long been in the habit of asking me to fit stuff into the fridge when we’ve got people coming or we’re trying to squeeze in space for wine, beer or softdrinks for parties etc – because us Cross Girls (myself and my sisters) all have the Packing Gene. It a little something we picked up from a thousand family camping trips where we each had a tiny bag for personal gear and the car was packed more meticulously than an OCD sufferer’s sock drawer.

So fitting extra stuff into what appears to be an already full fridge was a no brainer…. and a non-traumatic no brainer at that. That is until Yale’s friend, Narc, was in town this week and he told me that every time he packs his fridge or freezer he ends up with the Tetris tune going through his head as he shuffles the contents… and if the packing is extra finnickity or if he only just manages to squish everything in… he says he’s sure that some day all his groceries will disappear!

So no second guesses for what was going through my head today when I was packing away the groceries and trying to fit everything into the fridge…. Thanks a bunch Narcolepsy… I really need that.. 😐
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The schizophrenic decorator

Posted on December 8, 2008 by borysSNORC

I was cleaning the Small Child’s room tonight and came across (as you do) a little cardboard box full of his ‘treasures’. It contained some mismatched bits of broken toys, some leads for a Pacer style pencil and a few coins and a strange die. I opened it and asked the Small Child if it was rubbish and should we throw it out?

The look on his face was hard to describe… it wasn’t consternation or distress… it was more… incredulity really. He was looking at me as though he couldn’t believe that I couldn’t tell that these were his special things. He had something to say about each item in his little stash and it was quite obvious that these things were in there for their sentimental value. One item I had given him when I came home from a trip, another was part of something he made with his teacher, the die came from one of his father’s games etc.

No doubt he gets this from his mother. Because while I abhor clutter in my house I tend to sentimentalize certain knick-knacks and make souvenirs out of strange things that remind me of people, places or events, and these things could never be thrown away.

Finding the delicate balance between clutter and order is a particular Borys’ weirdness. I often walk into my home and look around feeling slightly claustrophobic and twitchy that there’s too much stuff in the house and not enough clean empty surfaces. Yet I’m the one who has decorated the place to have an ‘old English study’ kinda feel… dark burgundy carpets, leather wingback chair, lots of warm timber furniture, plenty of (very organized) bookcases, stained glass lightshades, prints and mirrors in heavy gilt frames. So I’ve not exactly gone for a modern minimalist feel that is more conducive to producing clear surfaces.

I have many things in my house which have many special meanings or associations. Just take my desk for example… there’s a cup from the DMZ in North Korea that I keep pens and pencils in. There’s a Marinoni pewter hourglass (a more useless item you’d be hard pressed to find) that I bought for myself on a ‘cheer-me-up-IVF-sucks’ shopping trip in 2004. Some shells from Vanuatu. A fifty rupee note from Pakistan. A Tudor Rose paperweight from Hampton Court Palace in 1997. Some little glass mushrooms from an artist at the Salamanca Markets in 1994, a heavy glass globe I bought in Prague and then lugged around for the next six months, a rock I pciked up off the ground at Gallipoli and several other bits and bobs that have been collected throughout my travels.

But the most sentimental item on my desk is a pair of tiny Swarovski crystal mushrooms, one of which is broken, that was a gift from my first boyfriend back in 1988…. so I can see where the Small Child gets his habit of making treasures from little broken bits of toys. And while I often pine for clean and clear surfaces the urge to discard and cull is always overcome by the need to keep my precious broken memories intact.

You might not know that I…

Posted on November 20, 2008 by borysSNORC

After all the depressing shit going on lately, I thought today I ought inject a little levity and write something nonsensical and unimportant. So I’ve stolen a meme (as you do when you’re after something redundant or ridiculous to write about) from SnackiePoo cos she rocks. Throroughly Trivial Thursday commences … now!

You might not know that I…

… wish I’d been skydiving before I fucked my back at 19
… sleep with my hair spread above my pillow so I don’t get caught up in it
… have bottles and bottles of perfume I rarely wear
… love the breathless way Marilyn Monroe talks
… have a tattoo of a fleur-de-lys on my right shoulder
… can’t stand working under daylight balanced bulbs
… am unable to say no to a mango Weiss bar
… have a tendency to ‘write people off’ if they’ve wronged me or my family
… need to keep my DVDs and CDs in alphabetical order
… have to arrange my books by topic, then height and size
… would consider homicide if I was promised a life without pain
… wear kids shoes and can buy designer sneakers dirt cheap
… never wear lipstick as it feel thick and suffocating on my lips
… have had five miscarriages and I try not to think about it
… sort my clothes in my closet and on shelves by colour
… have several sets of dictionaries and thesaurus in the house.
… always wanted to learn to ride a motorbike
… feel deflated every time I see the small holes in my living room ceiling
… am hyperflexible which is weird for someone with a bad back
… have 650 wallpapers on my iPhone but have only used one* since I got it
… like my shower really hot to distract from the pain of standing still
… would love to live in France for a year or two
… often feel that no one really gets me at all
… have to wash my hands every time I get food on them when cooking
… feel disconnected and naked if I leave my mobile phone at home
… wish I could sing opera or play an instrument
… don’t like using sunscreen because it feels greasy and disgusting
… never walk away from a disagreement or argument until it’s resolved
… used to hunt cane toads with my sisters when we were kids
… dislike jigsaw puzzles because I hate the disorder
… have to buy pink toothbrushes for myself
… like my eggs sunny side up and yolks unbroken
… feel pissed off when companies discontinue my favourite products
… love hunting for old books on eBay but hate expensive postage
… hate it when I make grammatical errors because I can’t type as fast as I think
… want to have a beautiful cottage garden
… like heavy marble bookends
… have no respect for people who don’t mean what they say
… like kitchenware shops and always buy things I don’t need
… think that you can be in love with more than one person at a time
… always wanted to build the Small Child a proper cubby house
… like purple and red as a colour combination
… don’t like low clunky windchimes but like light tinkling ones
… hate using a kitchen knife if it has a greasy or slippery handle
… have had more general anaesthetics than I can count
… refuse to take umbrage on someone else’s behalf
… always try to accept people based on their interactions with me personally
… can always tell if someone has moved anything in my house
… like roast sandwiches smothered in gravy
… don’t like people (especially children) going into my bedroom
… love sex but the bump and grind often aggravates my back pain
… think I’d look good in convertible Mercedes painted Cherry Crush
… am fiercely loyal and protective to my friends and family
… can make crème brûlée but rarely do because it’s fussy and fattening
… used to be able to strip and assemble and SLR in under 45secs
… sort my pins, cottons and embroidery threads into colour groups
… have wanted to see the Maldives since I was in my teens
… don’t like coffee, coke or chocolate
… love my little boy so much I’d hate to ever leave him
… dislike cats enormously
… have ten embryos in the freezer and don’t know what to do with them
… don’t feel comfortable sharing my bed with someone unless I’m in it first
… hate asking for help with things I should be able to do myself

* it’s late…I might explain this particular weirdness tomorrow

Dust Bunnies.. fluffy but sooo not cute.

Posted on August 3, 2008 by borysSNORC

I moved some furniture today. Or rather I had some beefy manly men types move some furniture for me. You should have seen the dust piled up behind my book case where it has sat for the last 8 years. The burgundy carpet was bright and unfaded and the dust was thick and coagulated. Can dust coagulate? I’m not sure it can – but it certainly seem to have some clumping tendencies that brings coagulation to mind. Whatever.

As per usual I’m getting off the topic and definitely rapidly en route to pixie territory (yeah situation normal there). Anyway, we moved the bookcase, there was copious amounts of dust and now I can’t get Kathy Bates playing the maniacal sociopathic Annie Wilkes in ‘Misery’ out of my head. The dust bunnies are coming to get me… I know they’re there now and no doubt also lurking behind other items of furniture that haven’t been moved for ages. I dread to think what it looks like behind my computer desk… ewww dust mites… yukk! 🙁

As you do when you’re having menfolk shuffle the furniture around for you, I totally changed my mind and had them put everything back where it was when we started :S

There should order in the universe…

Posted on August 1, 2008 by borysSNORC

I’ve always had a neat freak side. I remember when I was a teenager and sharing a room with my sister, BigSal, it drove me absolutely barmy that she couldn’t or wouldn’t keep her shit tidy. I was constantly arguing with her about it and frequently throwing her things back onto ‘her side of the room’. I think I can honestly say I learn most of my conflict management/resolution skills (for better or for worse) in that bedroom. I don’t think I know any kids that share a bedroom anymore… this is probably both a reflection on how parents let children rule the roost more these days (I know one famliy who gave their only child the master bedroom in their home because ‘she has so many more things than we do’) and no doubt also due to families choosing to have fewer children now than they did in the 70s.

Give me one good reason why the drawer handles shouldn’t match…

So I guess the whole anal retentive, slightly OCD thing has been with me for a while and I am not sure if it’s anything to do with my extra ‘special’ (and I use the term loosely) and often convoluted medication regime.. but I’m noticing the things I do and find myself saying… is that normal?