In one of those bizarre twists of fate, with barely 6 hours of sleep, I was up somewhat bright eyed yadda yadda at 5:45 am when the alarm started. More than a little amused at the song playing as I made up my bed (Teenagers, My Chemical Romance–I so need to download this album from iTunes), I was ready to go before seven so had time for toast and coffee and 30 minutes of sketching on Thursday’s RA before heading to work.

Okay, so here’s the thing about work lately: I’m scarily efficient. Dude, I conquered the clutter-stack on the middle of my desk. I can actually /see/ desk, and my desk calendar that hasn’t been flipped since January, 2004, (no, I’m not kidding…) and it’s been that way for almost a week! I’ve tied up projects from months ago and taken care of filing that was just sitting in the ‘whenever’ pile (i.e. the bottom basket from my inbox). I don’t know what it is? I feel like I’m in one of those movies where the characters do that freaky speed-up thing that’s supposed to be (and is, to me) scary and not-right. I mean, it’s totally odd. And now I’ve probably jinxed it and I’ll go back to being just a smidge behind the eight-ball tomorrow?

But, anyway, so I’m heating up my lunch (at 2 because I had the insurance renewals come in this morning so I decided to do the 20 employee notices and a little algebra before pausing for a nosh) and I’m noticing that the 8-foot table we have in the break room really is too big for the space and rather overkill since we never have that many people in the room at once and it hits me: My 6-foot table in the Abyss (I swear it’s still there, even though the craft supplies have tried to claim it as their conquered mountain) would work much better under the windows and then the 2 half-shelves under the windows now could be stacked, using the vertical space that is currently the only space in that room, and allow room for a whole ‘nother bookcase while freeing up center-space in the room at large! My word, I’m brilliant!

Of course, the downside is that in order to pull this brilliant switcheroo I have to get at least half of the contents of the Abyss out of the way. So, once I start that little bit of insanity the rest of my apartment is going to look like the DMZ for a while, but it will be so totally wonderful that I’m willing to give it a go. A Saint Bernard with a cask of vodka would not go amiss, mind you. Or, well, how about a dalmation with a fifth of gin?

But tackling the mountain was only the first brilliant idea of the afternoon: I have plastic paint. And those shelved that are stackable? Totally white(ish) plastic. I should totally paint them black and red to match the keyboard/mouse/monitor mod they will be near, right? (The answer here is ‘yes’, smile and nod, my friends, smile and nod and pass the martini and everything will be fine!) So, now the plan is to evac the Abyss (sweet pasta!), paint and lacquer the old shelves (whee! all the pretty colors), then reassemble the Abyss into something of a working space so I can stop working on the couch or the kitchen table. I can do theees!

First things first: a little recon. I was torn between the metal heavy-duty shelving available at stenchMart or the slightly more economically priced Rubbermaid utility shelves at Tar-jay (more plastic, more paint), but eventually decided on the latter before leaving work. After informing Mom of my plans, she suggested dinner at Chili’s (eh… the only non-stellar portion of the day, chain food, blah) and then to shop. Dude, I totally scored.

I never did find the Rubbermaid shelves I was looking for because first I found the store-brand version of the metal heavy-duty shelves at half the price of stenchMart and still $20 lower than the Rubbermaid set would have been, and in a black finish no less: it was fate I tell ‘ya. And it was in a box I could actually lift (sorta, okay, I levered it into the cart and then into my trunk, but I did carry it inside after changing shoes… big heavy box + black strappy 3″ heels = me as a victim of gravity. again.) BUT! Since I was, uh, ‘saving’ $20 on the shelves that I’d already reconciled spending, I went for a little stroll and found Girls Next Door Season 2 marked down just right. Double score!

Oh, and the add to the fun when I got home what was waiting for me? My Schoolhouse Rocks and Donald in Mathemagic Land DVDs. Yes! Media trifecta! Woot!

But now I’m late for bed, having finished this week’s comics, knit three inches on GP, and moving the first few bits out of the Abyss and into the hallway. Staging area is staging area. Tomorrow night I’ll seal the keyboard/mouse/ears, move more Abyss stuff, throw out a bunch of magazines I’m never gonna read, and finish (I hope) the Panhandle website. And do the shopping for the next eHow article: it’s food related 🙂