3.15.2010

"multi-tasking arises out of distraction itself." - Marilyn vos Savant

Searching for quotes about distraction can be really.... distracting. I have no idea who the hell this Marilyn vos Savant character is, but this statement perfectly illustrates what I sat down to share with you today. Or perhaps the word that best describes what I mean is not multi-tasking, but discovery.

With about eight months having passed since my last entry, there's really quite a bit to catch up on, but I'm only going to update on this past month. Perhaps later on I'll go back further, but I do hope my life is busy and exciting enough with new things that it won't be necessary. The first thing I'll share is a little "episode" I had about a week ago when I was at home trying to accomplish something. Really, all I set out to do was take my holiday wreath to the basement, as it had been waiting in a plastic bag in my front hall ever since I hung this....


And here is what happened.

Bring holiday wreath to basement storage, spy bamboo blinds from old apartment and grab them, remove cheap blinds from bedroom windows, go in search of hammer and nails in grandmother's old side table, find hammer, bud vase, and vacant glass picture frame in top drawer, accidentally remove drawer but save it from falling to floor, poke around in back of now-empty drawer opening, encounter two vintage scarfs and flawless dry cleaning ticket from 1959, tie one scarf around neck and admire myself in mirror above fireplace, light candle on mantel, try to fit old dry cleaning ticket in glass picture frame (it doesn't), find a picture box frame on side table, remove current photo and insert dry cleaning ticket (fits), rearrange and dust side table, make mental note to buy flowers for empty bud vase, think of what to do with glass picture frame, find photo of mother and trim it to fit, dust bedside table and place newly framed photo of mother next to lamp, remove potted succulent from bedroom and introduce it to sunny living room, return to bedroom to find shirt to compliment new scarf, admire still-empty bedroom windows. Still have not hung bloody blinds.

It's no secret to those who know me well that I have a tendency to get side-tracked and attempt to tackle dozens of tasks at a time.. "WOW! Something shiny!!" Well, I did eventually hang my blinds, which look gorgeous. I will be doing a post on my bedroom sometime in the future, but I'm overjoyed to report that despite the absence of a headboard, I am officially loving my urban nest.

Anyway, here's the neat dry cleaning ticket that I framed. Yes, I see the coffee stain, but in my opinion it is still almost flawless.


I find it almost eerie that this paper was stuffed into the back of my grandmother's side table for the past 51 years. And it's also pretty amazing that she only spent $4.90 on what appears to be several items. Simpler times, no question about it. Out of curiosity, I did a little research on "Carl's" and it appears that 373 Trapelo Road is now home to a music studio. As unfortunate as that is, I can still envision my sophisticated grandmother bringing her beautiful clothes to Carl's in the 50's. Busy raising three sons at that point in time, I can only hope she saw this errand as a bit of a respite from the chaos and screaming at home.

My grandmother and great-grandmother holding my older sister as an infant.

1 comment:

tvmom said...

wow, that was a cool story. We live in an old house and I've found some old stuff like that, but didn't mean as much b/c it wasn't family. Really cool that you framed it!