Taking care of some items found in the mess on my desk

 

This will likely be one of my shorter posts.  

Recently, I mentioned that I had to file some paperwork so that I can get $100 cruise credit on each of two cruises, simply for being a cruise line shareholder.  To do this, I had to wade through the mess of papers found on (and near) my desk to find a recent brokerage statement.  Most of the time, I don't bother to print this statement.  Nor do I always file the ones I receive in the mail when I receive them.  So, it took me a while to find September's statement amidst all the clutter.

However, I have a simple procedure for dealing with my bills.  I pay several at the beginning of the month (one/two is/are on auto pay), some more as they come in, and then the rest at month end.  By handling the bulk as they come in, I don't have to worry much about finding the bills when I get around to paying them.  (I use an oversize clip to hold bills, and then pay them in batches.)  If I were to ever get my desk straightened out, I'd likely use a different method.  But until then, I'll continue to do what has been working for me so far.

Yet, even essential things have been known to go missing for a while.  Ever misplace a wallet on a messy desk?  I have.  What about glasses?  Yup, I have done that too.  Even house keys have gotten lost in my desk's mess.  Luckily, I've learned how to deal with the mess and use boxes to hold things while I conduct my searches.

Aren't glad you don't have me for a bookkeeper?

Cleaning up the mess

 

If you think this mess in my bedroom is bad, you should have seen my living room!  But after 2 1/2 years of losing my 2 best friends, and 2 years of pandemic, there's a lot of mess to clean up in my life.  Getting my transgender identity in order is only part of that cleanup.

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Something I now say to any woman I want to get serious with is both that I enjoy dressing in women's clothes and that I go to work as a woman.  I play down the transgender part of my identity, as I am more than willing to live my life in both masculine and feminine roles in order to have a healthy romance.  Although it has cost me a relationship or two, I have found over the years that some women are open minded enough to take a chance with me.

A while back, FL gave me some advice, to not focus on what I would rather have been born as, but to focus on my wardrobe simply as a kink I enjoy.  And I've taken this advice.  Right now, RQS remains curious and unafraid of her possible feelings.  That's a good thing.  Unlike FL, we have progressed tolerably slowly, but steadily.  She knows what she's getting in me, and she knows the risks of a relationship with me.  That's a good thing.

As I gradually clean up the mess in my apartment, I'm gradually cleaning up the mess in my life.  I no longer think of what I lost over the past 2 1/2 years on a daily basis.  Instead, it comes up when I feel a little lonely, and have nothing better to distract me.  Cleaning up my place has taken on a new urgency, as I want RQS to visit my place for a change.  I hope that she doesn't get shocked when she sees how I live....

What a fine mess!

 

As I write this, my bedroom is in a state of total chaos.  I've been going through several boxes in which I've dumped stuff over the past two years, and have been tossing things into a garbage bag.  However, this leaves me with a mess that I still must sort through before I can get the place back in order, have my cleaning lady return, and have people over to my apartment.  (Note: I made this mess on top of a linen chest, and hope to have it cleaned off tonight.)

The first year of the pandemic was a horrible one.  Yet, I was able to go to work as Marian for the first time.  The second year was better, as I was able to get out and about, meeting people along the way.  Through dating, I was able to meet a couple of nice people with whom I am still friends.  But depression got the better part of me, as exhibited by my apartment, and it's been taking me a long time to get any traction on cleaning things up.

A quarter of a century ago, one girlfriend helped me clean up the mess that accumulated while my wife was ill.  I can't ask anyone for help with this mess today - and I wouldn't do so if I could.  This is going to be a big project, and one that will take me a long time to finish. I've been trying to do a little bit of cleaning every day.  But, given this image of my mess, you can see that it can be overwhelming.  So I'm trying to take my project management experience and use it at home - break up the work into little pieces, schedule it, and then perform the tasks.

I just wonder - How many more people were like me, and let their residences go to hell during the pandemic....?