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Infinite Country by Patricia Engel | Thoughts

   Published : 2021   ||    Format : print   ||    Location : Colombia ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆   What was it about the country that kept everyone hostage to its fantasy? The previous month, on its own soil, an American man went to his job at a plant and gunned down fourteen coworkers, and last spring alone there were four different school shootings. A nation at war with itself, yet people still spoke of it as some kind of paradise.. Thoughts : Infinite Country follows two characters - young Talia, who at the beginning of this book, escapes a girl’s reform school in North Colombia so that she can make her previously booked flight to the US. Before she can do that, she needs to travel many miles to reach her father and get her ticket to the rest of her family. As we follow Talia’s treacherous journey south, we learn about how she ended up in the reform school in the first place and why half her family resides in the US. Infinite Country tells the story of her family through the other protagonist, El

The Sunday Salon: Dealing with Hidden Mess

The Sunday 
Salon.com

Happy Easter, to all who celebrate it! I hope you have plenty of Easter egg fun and a wonderful time with family today.

After a whole week of 60-70 F degree weather, I woke up many times last night, freezing. It seems we are back in the 25-32 F territory but luckily the day is expected to warm up slowly. Phew. All my winter jackets are at the dry cleaners so I sure hope I won't end up missing them.

I spent a good chunk of Saturday decluttering three rooms. I'm still not done but I am close. We generally do decluttering/organization every few months so I was surprised by the amount of stuff I piled into the recycle and the trash bag. Of course, most of them were from the "hidden storage" areas - which is where we I stuff items we I don't yet want to deal with (the husband would rather throw them and that upsets the occasional hoarder in me). Don't we all have one or two drawers/shelves/cabinets like that?

My office desk is perpetually cluttered so it feels amazing to have it clear and spacious - it's really a huge desk but much of the space ends up getting used by paperwork, bills, receipts, and magazines. I still have a good chunk of items lying on the office floor and a lot of paperwork in the bookshelves that need to be culled, so once that is done, I can move on to the coffee table which has its own pile of junk stored away for posterity. I guess I'm going to be doing this all week.

The husband is away in India for a couple of weeks to be at his brother's wedding. I'm super disappointed not to be there as well, especially since this is a family wedding and I had been planning on being there ever since the two got engaged. But I didn't want to deal with the almost 30 hour travel, of which 20 hours involve sitting in a narrow claustrophobic seat on a plane with very little room for movement or patience. My back and ribs haven't been very forgiving lately so it never helps me to challenge them.

I've been doing somewhat more reading than I did during the last two weeks. I finished French Milk and am now halfway through The House at the End of Hope Street. Aside from some shopping and cooking that needs to get done, I'll probably spend most of today doing more decluttering so I don't have much of it to do during the week.

How is your weekend going?

Comments

bermudaonion(Kathy) said…
Decluttering is so much work but it sure feels good when it's done.
Ti Reed said…
Sorry that you can't attend the wedding buy my goodness, you can't sit for that long in your condition!

Happy Easter! Make sure you rest after all that decluttering.
I have other thoughts that I will share above, but ditto what Ti says, Athira. :)
Athira / Aths said…
It sure feels amazingly good. Oh boy. I love tossing stuff away, which makes me wonder why I even collect them. I guess I just go through a phase of collecting stuff and then a phase of getting rid of them.
Athira / Aths said…
Although I planned to do decluttering today, I didn't really do much. Fine by me. I think I did a lot yesterday and deserve this free day to do anything I want to.
iliana said…
Hope you are having a lovely Sunday. I'm sorry you couldn't travel with your husband to be there for the family wedding. That's such a bummer but hopefully he'll bring you lots of pictures! Hope you have a great week ahead!
JoAnn @ Lakeside Musing said…
It's probably for the best that you aren't at the wedding... traveling while pregnant is tough! My mother called last night and told me the local news reports said it was colder on Easter than on Christmas Day - yikes! GladI'm still in FL! Hope you have a good week :-)
Aw man, I feel you about the plane ride. I could barely tolerate that plane ride while not being pregnant -- by the time I got back to the States, I was a shadow of my former self, and that's WITH having been bumped up to first-class on the flight between Chennai and Frankfurt.
Lisa Sheppard said…
I swear clutter grows while we're sleeping! It's a revolving job at my house; I'm pretty much moving from room to room. You're like my hubby; he's always afraid we're going to throw away something that might be useful or valuable.
Belle Wong said…
I finally got around to cleaning my desk a few weeks ago and I'm amazed because I seem to have hit the organizational sweet spot with all my desk stuff somehow and everything is STILL uncluttered! I had to laugh about your coffee table. Ours was always like that so we finally gave it away (we have a small living room anyway, so with it gone the room looks more spacious). But that of course didn't help with the clutter, which just moved onto the sofa itself! We'd be sitting on the sofa surrounded by piles of books (it's always books, isn't it?). So a few weeks ago we got a cart from IKEA. It's supposed to be for the bathroom but it's now our book cart :)
literaryfeline said…
I am sorry to hear you can't attend the wedding, but it's completely understandable given your condition. I hope your husband has a nice time in India--and that he has safe travels.

Clutter . . . I clean it. It comes back. It never ends. It gets worse when you have a child.

I don't want you to read The House at the End of Hope Street. What if you hate it? I loved that book, but I know many who didn't.
Athira / Aths said…
He sure brought a lot of pictures that made me more jealous than I already were. :-/ But no regrets, I think I would not have enjoyed the constant moving back and forth between different places.
Athira / Aths said…
I am reaching that stage where even getting up to pick the TV remote from the table in front of me is feeling like a lot of work. I am glad I didn't travel even though I missed it all.
Athira / Aths said…
Did you fly Lufthansa? I imagine Lufthansa and Emirates as having the best business and first class ever.
Athira / Aths said…
I agree with you. Clutter just seems to be building up when I am not watching!
Athira / Aths said…
Haha - that made me laugh. That's just what happens though. The more furniture you get rid of, the more stuff you suddenly seem to be surrounded by.
Athira / Aths said…
I LOVED House at the End of Hope Street and I am so glad that you mentioned the book on your blog. It's such a sweet charming read.