Random 5 for April 24 – Starbucks, donating, self-esteem, full speed, cats

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Morgan: I knew you bought me something. I'll just help myself!

Morgan: I knew you bought me something. I’ll just help myself!

Get out of there! – I brought a plant and some cat grass and put the bag on the counter. I took my coat off and turned around and Morgan already had her head in the bag munching. That cat has the nose of a dog.

A happy start – Sometimes a perky person can jump-start your smiles. On a recent Starbucks trip (remember this is all pre-coffee for me) I was in back of a guy who was friendly. Not the annoying friendly but the funny friendly. He made me laugh and that carried me through the morning. I must remember to do that for someone else.

Donating is work – Readers know that over the past two weeks we have done a major clean out of stuff. I refer to it as the first step to the nursing home. (No, not now. We have another 20 years before we move there!) I was surprised at how much work donating is. Some places that this and some places take that. Our local library stopped taking books so we searched around for alternatives. Many places only wanted books written within the last 5 years. Seriously? There are tons of good books written prior to that. One place told us nothing trashy. I don’t know what that means. It’s hard to read a book these days without some sex in it. I didn’t own any of the “Shades of Gray” trilogy so I gave them the box and let them toss.

Growing like weeds – Also on the docket this week was my annual medical check-up. As I put on the gown (I asked for a Gucci one but think it was from Wal-Mart) I noticed a patch of leg hair down the front of my left leg. From the length of it, I suspect I missed that spot at least twice. The good news is that I’m not a hairy person and I no longer care what people think.

Busy, busy – This past week has been hectic. I had to “kick it up a notch.” There were times when I felt I was on drugs, flying around on a broomstick. I remembered that this is how I did it when I worked. The side effect was that my blood pressure (which is always low) dropped so I was flying with a little wooziness going on.

So how was your week?

48 thoughts on “Random 5 for April 24 – Starbucks, donating, self-esteem, full speed, cats”

  2. This reminds me I have about one month to declutter, throw out, donate, and rearrange before H retires! I have to rearrange so he doesn’t realize something is missing – something of his. ~Elle

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            • My older cat needs cat grass to keep her system working properly. She never munched it as a young cat, but now it keeps her from getting constipated and grumpy.
              Apparently cat grass is a growing industry…the place we buy it now has 3 different types. (we stick with original – RC Cat did not like variety and was really annoyed and snubbed it.) One vet said you can just grow bird seed yourself, but noooo. Not even worth a sniff. Might work if the cat hasn’t a preference yet…cheaper!
              It’s funny, they know when you walk in with it and appear out of know where demanding access to the grass.

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              • We don’t have choice here but it’s cheap ($1.99/pot) at our local garden center. I’ve tried growing it but it takes a few weeks and no matter where I put it, the cats rip it apart before it’s established. Yes, they come out of the woodwork when you walk in with it. It helps grumpiness? I should try it myself! Cheaper than Starbucks.

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  4. Morgan knows how to find the good stuff! I’d never be able to bring a beautiful plant like that into my house. My three cats would have it stripped down to the stems in no time. Kudos to you on completing the big de-cluttering!

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  6. “Nothing trashy.” I too am not really sure what that means. Like when people complain about a lack of family values. Whose values? Yours or mine? You did the right thing just letting them make the decision about which books to keep or toss.

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    • I wasn’t sure if they were talking about romance stories or stories like “50 Shades of Gray.” Perhaps it’s best they didn’t give examples because I didn’t get all tangled up in it.

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  7. As my great aunt would say . . . that Morgan’s a nosy Parker!

    Congrats on your massive clean-out. I always feel lighter and brighter after dropping off another round of stuff.

    Making people laugh is my favorite thing to do ~ I practice often in waiting line. It’s entertaining for me anyway.

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  8. I am on a clearing out binge too… I fill up boxes, put them in the back of my car and drive them over to Goodwill and speed away before anybody has a chance to tell me they won’t accept something. I figure I’m giving them so much great stuff they can deal with the not-so-great as well. Makes me feel good to know all these things hiding in the closets and drawers and garage for so many years will have a new life. Low blood pressure… what is that? I figure I’m having a good day if blood is not spurting out of my ears!!!

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    • Believe me low blood pressure has it’s own thing. Most of the time I’m fine but if I have symptoms it’s low energy and light headed. I work to make sure I am hydrated and active but that’s about all you can do. My doctor tells me to be grateful. Ok, I must confess. There are times I sneak in some things too. On my last trip I took a very pretty basket. They don’t take baskets but I walked in with it and everyone’s eye lit up so I knew I had a hit.

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    • I do Purple Heart sometimes and they will take almost anything. Ants? I haven’t found the stuff you use yet. I tried at the Home Depot and Lowe’s stores. Haven’t gotten to Walmart yet. What I did was move Hazel’s food dish and I haven’t seen them since. My husband also found that the siding under our sliding doors had bulged and that was a possible entry so he fixed it. I have not been successful in finding rows of them “congo-ing” into my house with a hormone line.

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  10. I am beyond impressed that you shave any part of your legs whatsoever. The last time I shaved my legs was probably when we had a president named Clinton. If we have another president named that maybe I will go for it again. TMI?

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  11. My husband is one of those guys who loves to engage people in line with friendly talk. I marvel at his ability to make small talk and get a grin or a laugh out of strangers. I try to emulate his easy banter but I’m not nearly as good. But, it really feels good to at least try.

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  12. Morgan is an opportunist, what can I say. The Inspector Clouseau of cats.

    Nice to encounter a little cheer when your eyes aren’t even open yet. Starbucks is certainly good for that, if you’re lucky. Today I saw a man with a cracked cell screen I immediately bonded with since I just cracked mine…he just didn’t know it when I brought it to his attention. He wasn’t as cheery as your guy, let’s say.

    Nice to donate. What you’re tired of will make someone smile. Take it from a girl who knows…she’s furnished her whole new apt with items no one wanted anymore.

    Sure do enjoy the Random 5 🙂

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    • Cat grass is just plain grass. Sometimes it’s oat grass but it’s sown in little pots that you buy for you cats to eat. By nature, cats like to eat grass. It does something for their digestive system (maybe fiber?). Sometimes it helps them barf up a hairball (yeah, like they need help with that!).

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    • It’s so much easier to discard my husband’s stuff. No attachments. For my stuff, it takes so much longer. However….this round was brutal. I was so proud I had a mocha latte. (I tried not to buy another pair of shoes because…well…you can see how this gets to be a circular exercise.)

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  15. Glad to hear you got a clean bill of health at the doctor’s. Donating stuff is work, isn’t it? I do the same thing. Fortunately, our local Battered Women’s Shelter takes just about everything, from clothes to books to small appliances to kitchen gadgets and household goods. The problem is that they no longer can afford to send a truck to your house to pick it up, so as long as you don’t mind driving to their thrift store location (across town from me), then you can donate. I try to make a trip there at least a couple times a year.

    Right now, I’ve got a full set of like-new encyclopedias that no one wants. Funny, at one time, they were the bomb. Expensive, fancy, best of the best. Now they are the equivalent of a huge door stopper. The whole set (including new issues each year for about ten years), includes about thirty-five books, so I’m really hoping maybe I’ll find someone who will take them for an art project or something of that sort. Last year I put them on the “FREE” listings on CL, but no takers. So they still sit, all neat and tidy and shiny with their gold leaf lettering, in my shed. It kind of breaks my heart to get rid of them, but with the internet, no one uses them these days.

    I think it’s funny that nosy Ms. Morgan was all over the kitty grass before it even made if out of the bag. And I liked the story you shared about the cheerful dude at Starbucks. I try to do that myself sometimes … be the cheerful face for someone. Just because we can. Giving out an extra smile or two doesn’t cost a penny, and usually cheers US up, too. 🙂

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    • Every “exclusion list” had no encyclopedias on it. Not sure where you can go with those. I got rid of mine (it was an old outdated set from my childhood before they figured out the world was round) years ago. I donated a lot to our battered women’s shelter too but they have space restrictions and weren’t interested in luggage (no matter how nice) and some other items.

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  16. I, too, went thru stuff and donated! i organized my closet so that I would even allow my uber neat freak daughter see it. Hubs was gone for a few days so I did some whirlwind cleaning, plus I laundered all the costumes from last weekend’s theater production. Poor washer felt abused between sheets, blankets, pillows and costumes. Yes, every time I do this I know that it’s better for my children to not have so much stuff to deal with on my passing. Hoping to skip the nursing home.

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  18. Lol…first step to the nursing home. If you have another 20 years my guess is you’ll have to do another couple of these, though you may get to the point where you don’t care enough to do it..:)
    It is strange how you have to filter through what people take. It takes work.

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    • I was surprised at how much work it takes. Since there was a lot I considered having a garage sale but that would be a lot of work. I took the easy way out with donating excepting it didn’t all go to one place. At the end of the day there were 4 different places and that was scraping a few things that were still useful but too hard to find a home for.

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  19. This past week my daughter had a day off. I went to her house and helped her toss things. She needs me to help because as she says I’m brutal when it comes to getting rid of stuff. Hope your check-up went well. My sister had hers last week and she is now 15 years cancer-free!!! Yay!!!

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    • I’d love for you to come help me! This time I was brutal. Usually I am only brutal for about an hour and then the memories or sense of usefulness overcome me. My checkup was good. I have low blood pressure which occasionally gets symptomatic. My cancer check up was earlier this year and I’m 13 years out from my diagnosis. Woo hoo!

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