Today's attic adventures

Yesterday I found my grandmother's jewelry box. Most of the jewelry in it was junk, but I cleaned the box out, bagged up all the jewelry and set it aside, wiped the box down, and now I get to use it. It's black, and has these shiny mother-of-pearl sort of inlays of birds all over it. It's incredibly tacky but in an awesome way. And I really needed a decent jewelry box--I had been keeping my stuff in about 18 tiny boxes, which got really confusing. I'll probably still keep a few of the small boxes, but it's so good to have something large to keep most of it in.

Today, I was in the attic for only half an hour. I started the probably-endless process of deciding which stuffed animals to trash. I made a big pile. Then I found a pile of linens--a few blankets, and several sheets for an extra-long twin bed. College era stuff. Some of the sheets were never even opened. Then I dug back a little further, and found a small dead creature: a little skeleton surrounded by grey fluff. I think it was a bird because there's feather gunk on one of the blankets. That was bad enough, but as I was moving linens around, before I saw the dead thing, all the movement caused some of the grey fluff to whirl around in the air. I can't get rid of the feeling that I've got dead bird fluff in my mouth, and I'm grossed out enough that I'm done in the attic for today. I did get a significant amount done--a whole bag of trash and a large pile of stuffed animals to go out for the trash--so I don't feel that bad. I think I'm going to ask my dad to clean up the thing tonight. That's a man-of-the-household sort of job. I thought about doing it myself, going downstairs and getting the dust pan, but I just can't bring myself to do it.

I did find Mindy a new t-shirt, though--one of the many bears destined for the trash pile was wearing a "Hugs & Kisses from Hatfield, PA" shirt that I stripped off him. If it survives the laundry, it'll be Mindy's. The neck's a little tight for her, but she seemed to think it was cute enough for her to wear.

yoga plus cat

In spite of being lethargic, I managed to do a good solid yoga routine yesterday, and the same today. The most notable thing about yoga yesterday and today is that I'm still having to do it in the house, because it's still too rainy and/or wet to do it outside on the deck, and so since I'm in the house Sammy Cat has been helping me. Yesterday he walked underneath me while I was in the middle of a downward dog, and I almost fell on him because I started laughing. Today he walked between my legs several times as I did the wide-leg standing poses, and then he laid down next to me half on and half off the yoga mat while I did the seated work. I estimate I did 35 minutes or so of actual yoga and maybe 15 minutes of "relaxation", which involved lying on the floor petting the cat. Despite the cat/yoga interaction I've still been getting in a good amount of workout, and it's nice to have kitty bonding time too.