Office 6: More Floor with Inner Peach
Publishing appears to be going to hell, but then it does that on a regular basis. Several people I know have careers in turmoil and more join the group every day. I’m looking around at my own career tangles, and what I’m thinking is that I’m just going to sit here quietly until October and see what shakes out. Clean some office. Write some fiction. Eat some ice cream. Pat some dogs. Achieve, as I typed last night on our D&G brainstorming chat, inner peach.
So today I did just fifteen minutes. Tackled one of the boxes on the floor, stopped getting frustrated wrangling things (I still can’t get that damn label printer to work), concentrated on the things I can control, not the things I can’t. The business I’m in makes no sense, so there’s no sense thinking about it. Besides, I’m sure there’s nothing but good times ahead. Eventually.
And I got two boxes off the floor. Onward and upward to inner peach.
could you elucidate inner peach?
Sounds like a plan. Of course, with all the new indy houses popping up, this might be the time to come up with a secret identity and write something that won’t fly in NY. Nah. You and the GAM just put out a bestseller. You’re good.
I’m here to confess that I’ve been enjoying the daily progress pix and writeups. Have they inspired me to do the same? Um. No. But (to quote Chauncey Gardiner) . . . I like to watch.
There really didn’t seem to be a point to pictures today. Fewer boxes really don’t make that big an impact. In fact, to my disgust, it looks like it did before I started. If you only take out a couple, there’s not that much difference. But they’re gone now so that’s something. And I found folders for the Cherry Con so I can put the handouts in those and look very organized. I rock.
Well, I was going for inner peace and then typo-ed, but now I’m thinking about inner peach, because I am a peach, inside and out. Or not. I’m a little punchy tonight.
Two boxes and you can’t even tell. It’s enough to break a cleaning woman’s spirit.
Peaches are wonderful. More inner peaches must be better.
But now I’m wondering why on Earth you have a label printer? What’s different that can’t be done on a regular printer? I’ve printed more than 500 labels on my several years old HP inkjet all in one over the last 3 weeks. They come in an 8.5×11 sheet, with the number per page varying with label size.
So, why a label printer? Maybe donating it to some charitable organization would be best?
Jenifer - I loved my label printer. The theory was that I might be more inclined to do labels if I could do them one at a time whenever I needed it. When I use the printer I usually save them up until I have critical mass. If fairness, I haven’t used mine in over a year (okay like three years). But it was a very good idea in theory.
Jenny - I like the inner peach. Juicy, sweet, sometimes a tart, and on top of that, soft beautiful skin. I’m going to start looking for my inner peach. Don’t get discouraged. Two more boxes - you really, really rock.
Inner peach? I like that. Makes me feel all fuzzy inside.
Tow boxes may not be noticeable, but it was two boxes! Something was done! Keep up the office cleaning. You’re doing great!
Boxes are like that. The remaining ones maliciously spread out to occupy all available space. Which is why you need to press on and vanquish them. They’ll give up and stop doing it once you reach a certain point.
If it’s getting you down, you could always chalk the floor around the boxes before you eliminate them. Like marking the bodies of the boxes you’ve killed.
If I sound hostile toward boxes, I am. I moved recently. Nuff said.
I forgot to mention, I’m so squirrely because I’m missing out on Crusie Con. I want so much to go and have to keep reminding myself I just attended your workshop in Australia, which was fabulous! But it seems so long ago and I’m ready to go again. I can hear myself speaking at a twelve step program, “Hi, I’m Roben and I’m a conference junkie.”
I think it’s time I stayed home and got serious about writing. Anyway, hope it is amazing.
Your inner peach could be dressed up with a little Asti Spumanti or Prosecco and then you have inner bellini- with a few of those many things become peaceful
(-: I like that — the inner peach. Rosy, delicious and juicy.
Two boxes off the floor is better than no boxes off the floor. And there’s a Japanese saying that goes, “Even dust will pile up to make a mountain eventually.” By the same token, even 15 minutes a day will look like a big deal at the end of the week.
Keep going!
Sigh. I wish I weren’t such a voyeur. 15 minutes a day isn’t THAT much. *I* could do it. Why don’t I? OK, when I get home today.
Oh lord. Am I the only one thinking this? Fuzzy outside, juicy inside… inner bellini indeed.
Well, I’m laughing, anyway.
Oh Jenny - you sound like you’re having a why-do-I-do-this-writing-thing-again day.
Hugs.
Put your feet up on one of those boxes and eat ice-cream while you pat a dog or two. The world can wait.
Recipe for Inner Peach
Cut ripe peaches in halves along the “seam” and remove the stones. Cut to quarters if they are big. Bring to a boil in a pot with a little water, and a split vanilla pod. Let them simmer at low heat until the you’ve got lovely glassy chunks in a liquid thickened by the disintergrated skin, ’bout 45 min. Sweeten to taste and add Amaretto if you’ve got any standing around. Eat warm on thick slabs of good bread or ice-cream, or cooled with cream.
Works very well with nectarines too.
Last week I got tired of seeing the four big boxes of assorted paperwork on the dining room floor. So I put them on the table, sorted out all around them and cleaned the floor. The room looks lovely, apart from the four boxes still piled on the table. Another week, perhaps….
Jenny,
If YOU’RE rethinking a writing career… Accch! At 60 and finally with a saleable (I think, anyway) manuscript (third of three), I’m pitching and querying my aging heart out. But I’m going to keep at it.
Ya gotta follow your dream some-friggin’-time.
Peachie, do the three R’s: Read, Rest, Relax. And then when you feel better: ‘Rite.
Looking for my inner apple.
Hey, 15 minutes was the goal, remember? Don’t go all perfectionist. 15 minutes is an A+. Anything else is extra credit, but 15 minutes is wonderful.
Don’t be so hard on yourself, Peachie
You’ve made amazing progress in less than a week!
Hope the publishing world works its way through the crazy’s soon.
Inner peach…I sense a great book title there.
I *luuuurve* inner peach! Typos can be so much fun. And yes, you are a peach. Tree-ripened, at that! None of this being picked early to ripen in the crate for you. I love the story of your writing career. I must admit that you give me (a 38-year-old mother of 5 who hasn’t published since the high-school literary magazine) a great deal of hope.
On another note, I grin every time I think about you (”Nothing but good times ahead.”) and Bob (”We’re doomed.”). Sounds just like me and my husband! He’s Mr. Where’s-the-Peril-Sensitive-Sunglasses-when-you-need-them?, and I’m Mrs. Rosy Spectacles.
We’re in the midst of getting ready to move to a new house; this always exacerbates (I love that word!) his condition.
Good grief. I use a lot of parentheses, don’t I?
I’m a big believer in embracing (my first attempt was a misspell … I’m not sure you can embarass your inner peach but I was gonna try) one’s inner peach.
It’s dark and wet outside today which I’m not complaining about because we so badly need the rain. But dang it was hard to drag myself out of bed. Think anyone would notice if I just spent the day dozing under my desk, embracing as much peach as possible?
Great job on the 15 minutes and those two boxes definitely count. I wish there was something we could to to inspire you the way you have inspired so many of us. We’re here cheering for you and your reclaimed spaces.
So cherries grow up to be peaches?
Sounds like some bad planet is in retrograde. It’s hard to keep reminding yourself that sometimes great things come out of turmoil when you’re stuck in the middle of it.
Hold on to your inner peach!
Remember that we focus on the “Dove Perspective” around here. It isn’t so much what it looks like, but what if feels like - and how it is right now is just right.
So, embrace the inner peach.
You met your goal of 15 minutes - and that is more than good enough. And hey - 2 boxes is 2 boxes.
I unearthed one more counter in my kitchen and did 2 loads of laundry. (Yes, ok the last one is still in the dryer, but it is washed and dried and NO LONGER on my kitchen floor.)
Sit back and enjoy the view somewhere. Wasting energy on the turmoil you can’t control wouldn’t help.
I could use some inner peach. Maybe some inner bellini.
It’s gonna be one of those days.
I would much rather embrace my inner peach than embrace my son after a football game. Last night he came home from his football game and tried to give me a big hug. Of course the odor reached me way before he did. Hot day, 17 year old boy, lots of running around. Oh man did that boy stink! We had to air the house out. Give me peaches any day.
Gina: I love Chauncy!
Great Dane: I’m hungry now.
Jenny, sometimes decluttering isn’t about the empty space, just like a scale doesn’t always reflect a “diet” achievement. Two boxes are great. Just think, if you weighed everything you’ve decluttered what that would amount to.
And, as we’ve all been saying, it cheers us up on this end to read your progress, and it makes our tasks seem less daunting.
It also makes me sure that my inner peach is a freestone type.
Hey, 15 minutes was the commitment, and you met that. No point in making yourself crazy whilst uncrazymaking your writing space.
LOL I’m going to to have to steal inner peach. That’s too good.
Here’s another inner peach recipe: peaches sliced, spiced with cardamom, and poured over French Vanilla ice cream. Yes, it is inner peach. It might even attain world peach.
hey - 2 boxes is 2 boxes.
That is the key. If a freak earthquake were to hit Ohio tonight, you would be 2 boxes’ worth less likely to die of a massive papercut.
(Anyone else finding the “We’re doomed” thing contagious?)
It really is impressive that, feeling as you are, Jenny, you did the 15 minutes and the boxes! That’s where I always get stuck when I’m doing an exercise program: I don’t WANNA, so I don’t, and it cascades. This time (of course, I’ve been here before), I’m going to do SOMETHING, even if it’s just 15 minutes with weights, or the 10 minute bonus workout.
It may not, itself, do much, but it’s a) better than nothing and b) holding that place in your mind where the tidying or the exercise goes.
I unpacked about 8 boxes in my office this morning. Now I just need to go back through things and get recycling, consolidating, turning paper electronic…
Surely “Achieve inner peach” belongs on a Cherry T Shirt.
Just getting caught up on your posts today…love the 12 days of office. And isn’t FlyLady a total GODDESS She’s the home guru you can relate to unlike Martha. I love the site, and the acronyms; CHAOS- Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome. But YOu are inspiring me to clean my office at home which I havent’ touched since I had the baby….Last September!! OH- and love the window seat colors- chocolate and red! Did I mention my walls in my office are painted black? But there’s a wood floor, wood desk, wood shelves, wood window seat and an aluminum ceiling. So thanks for not having a plain jane office! Hugs- keep on trucking!!!
I’ve been a lurker the last six months or so, but I have to post in support of inner peach vs. inner peace. Isn’t it wonderful how typos sometimes enlighten you in a way that what you intended to write never would have?
As for the two boxes. . .you should be happy you stuck to your plan, Jenny. If only I could stick to my plan to write every day. . .
Wow such progress! Love the inner peach. Also all the notes and things you’re finding/putting together for Cherry Con, since I’ll be there!
Maybe you can hang on to those notes for a lecture on subplots, and share that bit as well! I’m just glad I can learn some more about writing, and not have to learn to knit just yet!(Har)
So glad you mentioned ‘Beyond Jennifer and Jason’, because way back when you mentioned it before, (HWSW?), I bought it. Lately I’ve been searching for it around the office, but to no avail. Maybe remembering the title will help! Oh my. I should do a 12 step/day program as well!
World peach. I like it.
Although it makes me think of that water tower in Georgia.
World peach would be great and welcomed by most. I think you’re a peach too. /;+)