That said? I’d forgotten how things that look awfully simple end up being harder than one imagined. I’d say that the people at the gym are going to get a good chuckle with me doing my squats or curls, but let’s face it, if you’re at the gym  you know how easily these things can kick your butt. (And part of why I like going to the TJ Community Center is the lack of judgmental people there.)

On an utterly different note, I am determined that this week I will finally dig everything out of the kitchen cabinets underneath the bar/countertop and re-arrange. It’s been in progress since… um… December. It would be nice to have that countertop back into something usable again. Fingers crossed.

On the bright side, what a difference. All sorts of stuff earmarked for library donation, thrown away, or kept but now in a place where I’ll actually see it again. Always a nice feeling to get that sort of stuff done, even if it was long overdue. Next weekend’s goal is to wipe out the now five(!) bags of books that need to be sorted into library, Amazon re-selling, or eBay. Oof.

Of course, the stuff in the bedroom isn’t the only thing that’s being re-arranged. After a good 20-miler last Saturday, my right calf was feeling pretty sore on Sunday and part of Monday. It felt ok on Tuesday, but after just two miles of running it started hurting again. I went to a Foot & Ankle Sports Medicine doctor who diagnosed it as a strain, and also gave me an insert for my right running shoe to hopefully help prevent this in the future. But it does mean a couple of weeks off of running.

I took this as an opportunity to finally buy a 25-punch visitor pass for the pool near work on Friday (as well as heading over and swimming 32 laps), since it and spinning were both deemed acceptable. If I just keep active between these two, it should hopefully help minimize the amount of rebuilding I have to do before November 1st. I’m hoping the slight break will also help me get a little more jazzed about it when it rolls around; a solid year of marathon training is getting a little mentally wearing as time goes on. As psyched as I am for the Disneyworld races in January, I’ll be glad when they’re done.

Then I got out the Norelco Bodygroom electric razor so that I could shave and shower before heading off to the pool this morning (30 laps/1500 yards, a new record for me!) only to discover that the trimmer/shaver foil was mysteriously missing. I checked the box from the Container Store that I keep my clippers and such in. Nothing. Next I checked the floor around the closet where the box is. Nothing. I even scoured the path between the bathroom and the closet, but came up empty handed. Argh. At least replacement foils are available and so I should have a new one arriving on Wednesday.

In the future, I would like this sort of thing to happen once I am fully awake, because I’m not entirely capable of dealing with it at 6am. (Normally I’d have just fixed the mirror right then and there, for instance.)

On the bright side, I don’t believe that bad things happen in threes, so with any luck that will be the end of it for today. Maybe?

(Tune in tomorrow when we discover that a trip to the gym after work resulted in Greg getting his toes snagged on the chain on the rowing machine.)

It’s amazing how much random stuff we accumulate over time. I know I regularly write here about needing to get rid of books I’ll never read again, but this opened my eyes up moreso than usual. Half-used bridge scoring notebooks, empty wine bottles that a friend had wanted to bottle his own wine (but never picked up), bags of old golf balls, recipe books that hadn’t been opened in decades.

And of course, the whole time, I’m thinking about my own apartment and wincing. Partially because I’m now of course thinking, “How much stuff should I be getting rid of?” And partially because it made me wonder what would happen if someone else had to go through all of my things. So I’m mentally pencilling in the weekend of the 27th (aka the only free one I have in a five week zone) to try and not just get rid of some books and clothes (my usual targets) but, well… all the little odds and ends.

(How many times have I claimed this?)

On the bright side, the mystery crud seems to have finally gone away, hurrah. Aside from that, it’s just been a little chaotic in Gregland, trying to get nine billion things done this week before heading back out of town tomorrow morning. And of course, the first of my four “preview week” performances at Shakespeare Theatre is tonight (Romeo & Juliet); if it was a regular ticket I’d have just exchanged them for ones later along, but because I went with the preview week package… not really that much of an option.

Oh, and clearly the new fall season is back because I am already behind on tv shows. How is that possible? And yet… and yet… oh well. Here’s what’s programmed into the DVR right now.

• Project Runway: Still amuses me, and with the shift to Lifetime (and BMP producing instead of Magical Elves) starting next season, this could potentially be the final hurrah.
• True Blood: I liked the pilot, in part because of the strength of the cast; definitely sticking around for more.
• Entourage: Was Vince always this punchable? Then again, he’s never been the “lead” really.
• 90210: Stop looking at me that way. I had to watch the 2-hour premiere, if only for nostalgia’s sake. And I swear, it’s like they dusted off 18-year old scripts and updated technology references. Bizarrely old fashioned. I suspect once the rest of the shows I like (or will try out) roll around, this will get the boot. And I’m already an episode behind.
• Fringe: Well, I recorded it, have yet to watch it. You see what I mean? Already getting behind. I’m cautiously optimistic, and I’ll probably give it at least two or three episodes. I enjoy Lost enough that a new J.J. Abrams show gets a shot. Hopefully it will be more Lost and less What About Brian? (which was wretched).
• America’s Next Top Model: The lure of the transgendered model who’s a local was enough to make me watch the first episode, which was entertaining. But I haven’t watched last night’s episode. Behind yet again!

And this is with How I Met Your Mother, Ugly Betty, The Office, Amazing Race, Pushing Daisies, 30 Rock, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Life on Mars all on deck for the fall season. Yeesh. I think this is why when shows go bad I don’t get upset (like Boston Legal or My Name is Earl), because it just means time spent doing other things.

On the bright side, unwatched tv shows only take up space on the DVR, not in my home. Unlike books. Ahem.

So, I’m folding in the “clean this stuff up” path with a “get rid of things you don’t need any more” mission, and so far it’s a success. I have three bags of books and videos to go to the library; I’m especially excited about having sorted through the two comic book “long boxes” that housed my Doctor Who VHS tapes and pared them down to just two “short boxes” instead, thanks to weeding out the ones that have been released on DVD. Suddenly I have a lot more room in my closet, hurrah! That whole section of my bedroom is now a thousand times better; the stacks of books and unsorted CDs are all put away, I’ve rearranged some of the shelves, and I no longer cringe when I look at my room.

I’m not sure why I ever let it get to this level when I look at what a relief it always is to take care of it—I mean, we’re talking about an end result where I walk into my room and just stop and beam at how much better it looks. You’d think I’d be going crazy to keep it that way. The strange dichotomy of my head, I suppose. And until then I have to just keep excavating my room like some sort of bizarre archaeological dig.

It was a good weekend in addition to that, though. Charlie’s good friend Devo is visiting from Boston, and she’s super-sweet and nice to be around. We hit the Jim Henson exhibit at the Smithsonian, and while I’ve heard complaints that there aren’t that many actual Muppets on display, I really love the behind-the-scenes sketches and drawings that he created. They’re both beautiful and a creative inspiration to look at. We also hit my favorite Smithsonian museum, the Sackler Gallery; the new Yellow Mountains exhibit on that region in China was simply breathtaking.

I also finally caught The Dark Knight, which I thought was very good, although not the nerdgasm that so many others seemed to be claiming. A really cheesy ending, but so many small and individual good scenes that I’m willing to forgive. I’d be happy to see a third Nolan Bat-movie down the line.

(And last but not least, while I did not miss going to Comic-Con in the slightest, seeing everyone’s pictures makes me miss seeing my friends there. Maybe I could just go to San Diego and not enter the show? Ha ha.)

Today my throat is a little sore from running in the bad air quality. I suppose I should be thankful it’s just Code Orange and not Code Red or Purple (aka, “Don’t even think about breathing” levels of badness). By the time I was done with my run it was too late to take the bus into work, but I might just leave my car here and take the bus home, then bus it back in tomorrow. I’m enjoying my extra reading time that I get from my once-a-week public transportation.

I’m not entirely sure why I haven’t ever met any of my neighbors before. At Peachtree (1996-2001), I honestly didn’t even see the three neighbors on my floor for a couple of months, and then I just felt silly introducing myself at that point. I know, I should’ve said something, but… well, there we go. Then at Archstone (2001-2005), I only had one neighbor on my floor because the ground floor was built into a hill and so two of the four areas were equipment storage. There I’d occasionally smile and nod at the person who lived across the way, but neither of us ever talked to the other person. So there you go.

Now that I’m in Woodbury Park (2005+), I had once or twice held the door for the older woman on my floor, but she never seemed really ready to talk. (And she’s since moved out, and while I think there might be someone else there now, I have yet to see any real evidence of him or her, just that flyers on the doorstep vanish.) The people on either side I also hadn’t ever seen for months, and I am never even entirely sure at any given moment if there’s anyone in apartment on my left.

However! The apartment on my right which went vacant about two months ago now has a new inhabitant. He had the door propped open while I was heading out, so I said hello and gave him my name (and vice versa). That was painless.

But… I dunno… for some reason I’ve never felt like really introducing myself. Like doing so would be saying, “You’re going to be living there forever, time to know the locals.” Is this just me when it comes to a rented apartment?

(That said, I do quite love my neighborhood. If I could afford to buy in it, I would!)

While the experience was certainly enjoyable both times, somehow it seemed to lessen the overall effect of the holiday. Maybe it’s because the holiday for me has strongly leaned towards everyone being home and together, and even at “mini-Christmas” that wasn’t really the case, doubly so since everything was still open and there wasn’t that day where we were all together and doing things and generally driving each other crazy.

But don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed myself. In some ways this muted holiday was the best one I’d had in a while, because the different circumstances seemed to rob any opportunities for drama. (Well, not entirely true. But close enough, at any rate.) It was definitely stretched out, though, and of course while the holiday isn’t just about exchanging gifts, the fact that even that got moved into three days (some with family on the 14th, more with family on the 25th, then with Charlie on the 28th) made it feel a bit odd.

Happily, though, people seemed to like what they received. I sometimes find myself really worrying about what to get people, because I want them to really enjoy the gift, the idea that they’ll know that they’re important to me and I thought about them for a while before making a selection. (Even choosing off an online wish list is something that I try and do with care, and if necessary I will abandon said list and go in an entirely different direction.) I got some lovely gifts in return as well, some fun games for the Wii and PSP, a few books I’ve been coveting (and how fun is it to get a coffee-table art book where you actually own one of the pieces spotlighted?), a couple of DVDs, some CDs, some refills on products I use (like cologne and body lotion), a piece or two of clothing… all things very much appreciated and enjoyed.

On the whole, though, it’s been a little quiet. Charlie and I had tickets to see Avery Brooks perform Tamburlaine at the Shakespeare Theatre for the 27th, only to have the production cancelled due to Brooks being injured (and the original understudy having to suddenly leave the production due to a family emergency). Thankfully, after two weeks of cancellations, it is now resuming and we’re rescheduled for next weekend on closing night. Hopefully Brooks will be able to resume the role then, but I’ll just be happy to finally see it. I spent part of the holiday just feeling tired (although a 6-miler on Christmas Day helped shake the doldrums), and a little wistful that due to both of us having family engagements, not spending the day itself with Charlie. But we’ve got plenty of time for that down the road.

Really, though, when it all comes down to it? While Christmas dinner was pending one final arrival, I remember sitting downstairs in the living room with one of my sisters, four cousins, and a close friend while we discussed the movie playing, Christmases in general, relatives who weren’t there, and any other conversational tangent that jumped out. And it was really nice. So there we go, really.

Only 361 more days until Christmas.

I’ll be giving the entire area a good vacuuming once everything is picked up and done (there’s still some piles of stuff from the old shelves on the floor, plus of course the shelves themselves still hanging around) but the one other thing that’s always helped in the past is opening up the windows and letting the apartment air out. So after two lovely days in which we’ve had temperatures in the high-50s and even hitting the 60s, I chose this morning to open the windows.

Naturally, that means the high today will be something like 46 degrees. I suspect when I get home from spinning tonight, I’ll have flashbacks to the walk-in fridges from past employments. And now, looking at the weather forecast, tomorrow? High of 58 degrees. Hmmmm, maybe I should have waited until tomorrow. Oh well.

On the bright side, I really do love those bookshelves. And I might be doing a little reorganizing of the living room area in general as a result. Woohoo!