It’s January 29 and I already have a life update. What this means is that my plans and scheduled activities have been thwarted by unexpected life events. Rather than stress about it and worry about it, I am attempting to accept the changes and deal with them as they come.
CAR ACCIDENT
The first unexpected life event was a car accident on the 17th of this month. It was minor and there were no injuries which is the most important part. The accident also was not my fault. I was driving up the street and a car was leaving a parking spot and plowed into me. The driver admitted that he was not looking and apologized. We exchanged information and went on our way. The good news in this is that he contacted his insurance company, we made arrangements to get my car repaired and they gave me a rental to use. My car had mostly scrapes and a dent as well as a busted parking light case. The bulb itself was not broken just the casing around it.
Of course, as smoothly as all of this has gone it has not been without some stress. My car is 17 years old. As a result, the repairs cost almost as much as my car is worth and the insurance company is considering my car a total loss. My options are to take the payout which is a little over $3000 and purchase another car or take my car back and receive the payout amount minus the salvage fee which is $800.
While it is my wish to buy a new/another vehicle, it is not in the financial cards at the moment. I also don’t want to want to just purchase any car. If I’m going to purchase a car to hold me over for 9 months to a year, I’d rather keep what I have. I’d like my next vehicle purchase to be one that I hold onto for a while.
I am planning to take my car back with the reduced payout. My reasoning is that the damage is to the body only and it’s minimal at best. The only reason that it’s considered a total loss is because it’s an older vehicle. I don’t need my car to look pretty I just need it to work. There will be some DMV paperwork to deal with and I will find out the details after I speak with the adjuster. Wish me luck!
ILLNESS
The other issue I have been dealing with out of nowhere is that I came down with a cold! Not a bad cold which is good but annoying none the less. I was recently talking to my friend, Michyle, telling her how I rarely get sick and then boom, three days later I’m sniffing, coughing and congested. I dislike being sick as I’m sure many of us do so sometimes I try to pretend that I’m not sick and just continue on as if. Since my word of the year for 2019 is transform, I transformed into accepting being sick and decided to really do what you’re supposed to do when ill. I increased my fluid intake (through drinking tea), slept the right amount of hours (got more rest) and just tried to take better care of myself.
As I write this, I feel much better and am fairly certain that this illness will be completely over in the next few days (which I am very much looking forward to). Taking better care of myself involves staying inside and taking it easy. I assure you that for the most part I have done that. The dishes in the sink and the laundry needing to be done can attest to that.
NETFLIX AND CHILL AKA REST
While I’m taking it easy, I decided to delve into watching the Marie Kondo show on Netflix-Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. This show is very trendy and I actually watched the first episode a few weeks ago. Full disclosure-I did NOT read her book when it came out a few years ago. I thought that some of the techniques sounded gimmicky (only keep what sparks joy) and the fact that people were “raving” like lunatics about it just made me suspicious.
Watching the first episode, I discovered that maybe the techniques weren’t so out there. Marie Kondo is very like-able which makes the show easy to watch. She is very kind in that she doesn’t judge the items people are attached to and helps them to figure out how to honor them. I also like that Marie gives tips on things like how to store certain items like photos, fitted sheets and sentimental items in different ways. The families on the show are very diverse as are the living situations. I also like the this show focuses on “normal” clutter and not a hoarders type of situation. It is the kind of clutter that many of us have in our homes so that ideas and techniques feel very accessible and relate-able.
I binge watched 4 episodes while I was taking it easy and I have to say that I really like it. I am a touchy-feeling, woo woo kind of girl so I do appreciate that aspect of the process. There are 8 total episodes and I have watched 5. I will definitely be finishing up the series.
This is what I LIKE about the process:
HOUSE GREETING-Marie greets the family and the house asking the home to cooperate with the process. She also has the family think about the vision they see for the home during this time.
MAKING PILES-In addition to doing the process in a certain order, Marie has the family remove EVERYTHING and put it into piles. For example, when going through clothes, you remove clothing from all areas of the house and put them into one pile. The KonMari method organizes by item not by room. It is crazy to see how many clothes people have. I would definitely fall into the “lots of clothes” category.
SPARK JOY-This is one of the more “controversial” techniques used and when I first heard it I thought it was stupid. However, the practice of only keeping items that are really meaningful to you in that they make you happy (spark joy) means that you love what you have and you won’t keep items for any lesser reason. If you have trouble figuring out if something “sparks joy” for you, Marie says you should ask yourself the question, “is this something I want to take into the future.”
SENTIMENTAL ITEMS-I like that in the process sentimental items are the last to be dealt with. Marie’s theory is that in doing the other items first, clothing, books, paper, etc…that by the time you get to the sentimental items you have strengthened your decision making muscle which will aid you in getting through the sentimental items.
I can honestly say that in the 5 of 8 episodes that I watched there wasn’t anything that I didn’t like. The one thing I felt kind of “meh” about was the act of touching books to “wake” them up. I don’t get it but if it works for you then go for it!
So that has been my life for the past couple of weeks. It threw me off track with exercise and activity but helped me to take better care of myself. I feel like I will be getting back to regularly scheduled life by mid-week!
How do you handle plans and schedules that get thrown out of whack? Do you jump back to it or does it take you some time to re-calibrate?
Share in the comments!
