Hello from the Osoji Trenches

Welcome to Day Three of Osoji.
Day One went like this: washed curtains, took the thousands of books (okay, maybe about a hundred or so) off the bookshelf, dusted bookshelves and moved them to mop under bookshelves. Rearranged bookshelves and replaced books in more orderly system. Beat living room rug, washed many loads of laundry and folded them, washed living room windows. Hand washed living room floor. Put everything Christmasy away. Cleaned sofa and depilled it with little depiller device. Ate some oden. Had a yuzu bath. Finished my first Christmas gift.
Day Two: Washed more curtains and laundry. Went to bank to withdraw fund before they close for New Year's (about four days). Went to Osu branch of bank. Ate mediocre Mexican food. Wandered through a flea market outside the temple. Bought ichigo daifuku mochi (my favorite). Returned home. Pulled all my fabric from the closet. Felt exhausted just looking at the pile of fabric. Finished my second Christmas gift.


Day Three (so far): Last gomi day before the holiday so I had to stuff the dead kiddie pools and the nasty rug into a trash bag along with some gross forgotten pizza boxes and long deceased ajisai and geraniums. All of these vile things had been put out of sight on the balcony for too long. Quickly cleaned out the fridge. Took everything downstairs before the gomishushusha rolled around the neighborhood at 8:30. Took a shower. Ate last omochi. Sat down with some tea to procrastinate by writing a blog post.


[Sigh] Okay, now my list:
-organize fabric
-finish cleaning out closet
-clean out desk drawers
-wash bedding
-beat and hang futons outside
-beat and hang bedroom rugs
-wash floors
-scrub bathroom
-clean toilet room
-scrub drains, especially washing machine drain
-use magic eraser to get all pencil and marker creations off the doors and walls and floors
-take a short break to buy supplies
-avoid looking at third Christmas gift

Creating a Life

The last posts of 2011 will be mostly reflective, which maybe is okay since due to laziness I omitted writing about a lot of our happenings this year. Gomen.

(picture of Buddha drawn by a creative student at Nico's school for the annual school festival)

This year I was determined to be actively creative. I was successful in creating more crafts, drawings, and stories than I was in 2010 but I still didn't meet my own targets most of the time.

There was the Etsy shop that morphed into a fabric shop (we're on vacation from supplying the world with lovely fabrics for the time being).

There was the postcard exchange that started with a huge number of participants, dwindled to half and now I, the organizer, am busy trying to catch up for months of missed postcards.

There was a novel that turned into, well, a novel. I wrote it in one month, including edits and a nasty bout of the flu. I'm not saying it is great (really, it is not) but it is complete. My first book, well ebook. It was more about getting it finished than making a masterpiece. I think that it has cleared the way for better writing. Given me hands-on experience of the practice of writing and overcoming my tendencies towards being overcritical and subsequently giving up on my work. I know I should be embarrassed about it but I have made a mission of reading all of my favorite authors' first works this year and I can tell you with certainty that the first work usually is, in a word, crap. The most meaningful lesson I gleaned from writing the book and working on the other projects has been that diligence and determination are really huge factors in generating success. Being talented is nothing compared to steady, unflinching hard work.

And lucky for me, I have a whole year ahead of me to hone my work habits. I am really excited about the days that are before me, just waiting to be created.