On Finding Insight While Taking On Menial Tasks. Also, Tips On Paper Destruction And A Drink Idea. The Good Stuff Just Keeps On Coming, Doesn't It?

For the last couple months every time I'd sit down at my desk, I'd have to move an ever-growing pile of papers needing to be filed in order to create some kind of work space.   At first it was just one bill paying session's worth of statements and invoices, then we added some medical bills and discharge info, a few sport registrations and subsequent schedules, then eventually some proposals, estimates and drafts of copy.  It required two hands to relocate and, as of yesterday, it became tiresome.

Typically, I'm obsessive about right on top of filing things away.  I find great comfort knowing my file cabinet holds almost anything I might need to reference in the foreseeable future - I'm kind of the Radar O'Reilly of my family.  Usually, around the first of the year, in a slightly ceremonial fashion, I'll purge the cabinet of outdated information and start fresh building my annual collection of records.  But for the last couple years, that papery release has not occurred and as a result, my trusty cabinet had reached maximum capacity.  There was no room at the inn.

It was kind of like on Seinfeld when George's wallet exploded after he added the little slip of paper with phone number on it for 'Free Guitar Lessons' - my file cabinet really couldn't hold even one additional sheet of paper.  Let alone the six-page forest killers we receive from AT&T.  It was time for a non-traditional, mid-summer paper release.  However, because we live in 2013 and I watch the news, I fear identity theft and couldn't possibly rest if I'd just tossed all our account refuse into the trash straight from the cute Target file folder it was in previously.  It must be destroyed.  Of course, I have no shredder, so I took matters into my own hands.  Quite literally.

So yesterday, I began to tear (by hand) each and every paper in a pile that stood nearly two-feet tall.  I sat on the floor beside my desk, listening to videos on YouTube about "Time Management" and "Figuring Out What You Should Be Doing With Your Life", and experimenting with a variety of ways to most efficiently tear a lot of paper.  I tried scissors, big piles, small stacks, vertical, horizontal and diagonal shredding, even attempting a circular pattern at one point.  I settled on five vertical tears (by hand) per smallish stack.  This gave me sufficient comfort that no account numbers would remain intact and no connections could be made to any names and addresses associated with our financial and personal history.  Plus paper tears most easily this way - note to self.

I didn't finish the job and still have half the stack left to do today, but after all that purging combined with some thought-provoking video info, I feel like I had kind of a healing day.  I simultaneously lessened my load and opened my mind up to some new ideas.  As much as I felt like a human hamster surrounded my by own scraps of fluff, I also think I may have kicked off a new phase of sorts (I've been in the market for one of these lately).  I feel a little more inspired now, even though I have three paper cuts and possibly the start of carpal tunnel syndrome.

I think I'll reward myself later this week with this tasty little sipper - The Sidecar.  It's from The Bonne Femme Cookbook - a new favorite.  She calls this the French granddaddy of the margarita and I like the way that sounds.  Here it is:

4 or 5 ice cubes
1.5 oz. Cognac
1.75 oz. fresh lemon juice
.75 oz. Cointreau or triple sec
1 lemon twist

Place the ice, Cognac, lemon juice, and Cointreau in a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously.  Strain into a chilled martini glass, twist the lemon peel over the drink and drop it in.

I'm wearing this today because it's cute and allows me to continue sitting on the floor tearing paper and finding myself.

gratitude:  the flowers from Geoff for the sweet sentiment and inspiring color combo, The Bonne Femme Cookbook, thoughts and ideas from Danielle LaPorte, birds in our birdbath

thanks and love.