This Week

I've been decluttering a lot the past couple days. Hard to remember back to Sunday, but I'll try.

Sunday: I continued the cleaning spree - took my shower curtains (big tub, need two), dust rags, and MOP HEAD (yes, it's one of the cloth washable ones!) to the laundromat. Don't remember if I decluttered anything, but I usually at least throw something in my recycle bin so chances are I did.

Monday: I paid a bill and recycled the envelope and inserts.

Tuesday: I don't remember what, if anything, I decluttered Tuesday.

Wednesday: I don't remember what I decluttered. Probably recycled an envelope or newspaper. Seems like I do that almost daily.

Thursday: After work I went to the grocery store, returning 5 cans and bottles and recycling 15 or 16 plastic bags. I may also have recycled a newspaper, don't remember.

Friday: I paid two bills and recycled the envelopes and inserts.

Saturday: On Friday I was feeling energetic and wanting to clean up the piles of paper clutter in my living room. So this morning after going to the farmers' market (where I found all the veggies I was looking for to make pork roast), I buckled down and got started. It actually was surprisingly easy to get going. I took tons of stuff out of envelopes and into piles for filing. Also moved some files into a box and cleaned out a bunch of useless papers to make room for the new stuff, which I then filed. Long story short, I recycled 42 envelopes and several inserts, 8 sample Christmas cards sent by a non-profit hoping to solicit an order, and 10 or 11 newspapers (I lost count), and have an inch-thick stack of papers to shred.

I also recycled an old quarterly report from stock I no longer own and about 20 pages of my cash expenses (with receipts) from 2003 - 06. And I removed 6 expired credit cards (!) from my files and cut pieces off each to throw away. THEN I changed the cat litter, and took that, the garbage, and the paper recycling out, as well as dropping off some unused recipe cards in the lobby. I proceeded from there to the grocery store to return 11 bottles.

When I got home I chopped and sauteed onions and chopped carrots for the pork roast. It's in the crock pot now.

Feels GOOD to get all that work done and cook something yummy for movie night tonight!

Results: Whoa. Well, first of all, it's cold out and we have heat! This is the most wonderful thing, because in the past my landlord hasn't turned the heat on till mid-October and even then he's been stingy with it. So I've been warm all week and am thinking it's a new trend! It's supposed to be a very cold winter here, which is actually good in terms of heating, because when it's really cold the heat stays on, and when it's mild it goes on and off.

I have traded four days this week. The first two days were extremely frustrating in that I kept getting in at the wrong time, so could not get out profitably. And Wednesday was a huge up day in the market, which made my sideways stocks even more frustrating. But on Wednesday night I got to spend some time with my guy, and I guess I needed to see him, cuz on Thursday nothing bothered me! My trades did better, and that continued on Friday.

On Tuesday, we had our first Ariadne rehearsal. I was a bit nervous cuz my music is nowhere near learned. I needn't have worried. There was ONE guy who knew his part. Everyone else had train wrecks at various points. It was crazy fun. This is fantastic music, the story is funny, and everyone is so talented. It is going to ROCK! There's not a weak link anywhere. Not only that, but we have incredibly talented conductors. I'm so excited to be part of this show!

Let's see, what else? Oh, I received a $5 coupon for my next contact lens purchase! This was the result of a damaged contact about a month ago, which was replaced. I guess they forgot to send the coupon till last week. Free money - I'll take it!

I got calls from a couple of friends I hadn't heard from in awhile, just to say hi and see if we could hang out soon. That was nice :)

Finally, back to trading, I got approved in a third account to trade options. This is an account with lots of money in it, so I will be able to do options on more expensive stocks that move a lot daily. I can just feel the money pouring in next week when I get started!

What a great week! Looking forward to more of the same!