Stacy Horn

Going to the gym gave me another boost of energy, so I did the job I was going to put off.  I went through all my records and successfully got rid of a ton of paper.  Yay!  I just love the feeling of paring down.  I feel lighter and freer already.  There’s a few more feet of unoccupied space in my apartment!  If I had to move tomorrow there’d be that many fewer boxes!  

So after three days straight of cleaning, today is officially a day off.  I will go to the gym and come back home and relish.  A little tv, magazines, and my book (still reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn).  Perhaps a home spa treatment.  This is exactly what it sounds like — I try to do the kinds of things you get done at a spa at home.

Here is Buddy who jumped into a small cabinet I was cleaning, the very second I removed a few things and created a spot.

I shot this basement-level window on 11th Street. There was a cute sign in the window which said: Items in window just for viewing pleasure (tip of a collected iceburg). Don’t you love this person??

I couldn’t resist trying again to capture the prettiness of these bulbs.  Oh well.

So yeah, I haven’t been to the gym in many days.  I have to go.  Have to. Then I get to laze about all day.  
One big cleaning job I had planned to do I’m putting off. I’m storing all this stuff, my research from each of my books, tax records for myself and Echo, etc.  I hate clutter.  I was going to go through and see if there is anything at all I can throw-out.

Then I realized if I wait until my Spring cleaning I can at least throw out one tax years worth of records. Except I will also be adding one!! Oh for the love of God. I’m sorry future firemen who will have to tunnel through the boxes in order to remove my mummified remains.

This is called “Collyer conditions” by the FDNY by the way, in honor of the Collyer Brothers, two brothers in Manhattan who couldn’t throw anything away, and it eventually killed them. It’s a fascinating story and worth reading.  One brother died when boxes fell on him while he was on his way to feeding his paralyzed brother.  The paralyzed brother then starved to death.  Rescue workers had to tunnel through piles of newspapers, etc., and they found one brother, but then it took days (weeks?) to find the other.

For someone who went to art school (my undergraduate degree is a BFA) I have little decorative flair. But here are my attempts at holiday decorations.  This is that top shelf that temporarily held the plants.

I considered getting a tree.  There’s even a spot for it now that I had to get rid of my beloved ficus.  And I thought, ‘The cats are what?  Seven and eight years old?  They’re not kittens anymore.  Maybe they won’t have to climb the tree and break every last bulb.  Maybe?  Right??’  Yeah, no tree.

So more bulbs to put around the apartment. I don’t think this shot is capturing the color and prettiness of these bulbs. Maybe I’ll try again. Below are the lights that I strung on my amoire instead of a tree.

And man are we tired. But all the big jobs are out of the way, and today is mostly fun stuff.

The one job I’m looking forward to is organizing my photographs.  I’m not going to do photo albums, that’s just too much work.  But I’m going to identify people, and maybe organize everything into envelops, ie, “9/11 friends,” “Echo friends,” “family,” and then put them all in one box. Right now they’re spread all over the place.

If I come across anything particularly good (or whatever) I will scan them and put them up.