Extreme Makeover, Cody Edition --- Part I

Cutter's Log - Stardate 2102.10.90
Current Song - While My Guitar Gently Weeps (The Beatles (George Harrison))

Two weeks have passed since writing about ceasing even the tiniest romantic thoughts of the girls I knew in the past. The slate has been wiped clean and it's time to start all over.

I'm in the aftermath of all of this. I hear nothing. I see nothing but a huge mess around me, like a tornado went through my mind in this crush-erasing process.

I'm personally a disheveled mess.

One of the best pieces of advice given to me over the years is to not change who you are for nobody. I look at myself now, and if I remain the same I'm not going to get anywhere.

I think the whole point of "don't change who you are" was meant for the inside of yourself, your personality and such. I look at my inside as a shiny, marble hotel lobby. I look at my outside as a bad-side-of-Detroit-like hotel exterior.

To try to make things better, I am constructing a 3-point improvement plan to help make things better for me: Environmental/Surroundings, Outside/Physical, and Inside/Mental.

I guess this is a problem that stems from having a big heart: I have cared so much about other people that I haven't cared a lot about myself. But I feel that if I care too much about myself, I'll turn into one of those pius, pompous, arrogant, world-revolves-around-me people I can't stand.

First thing's first: Try to make an effort to be somewhat neat and tidy. Everything around me is a mess. However, I have to try to not develop something like obsessive-compulsive.

Next after that: I got to get rid of at least 150 pounds. At first glance, I look like a liability to someone. This is by far the hardest thing to do.

Finally: The continuation to improve conversation and to see things through multiple pairs of shoes.


Environmental/Surroundings

I plan on spending today - Labor Day, which I asked for off of work - on trying to get my room and office cleaned and to establish a routine that helps me ensure the long-term survival of these changes.

When you head up the stairs to the second floor of my house, you'll bump right into an oscillating fan that blows toward my computer chair. When you get to the landing, the door to my bedroom is on the right, with my computer area to the left. This serves as an extension of my bedroom because there are quite a few things in it (plus, this is the only computer in the house, and this is a safer location than people running around in my bedroom).

Right next to my door is a whiteboard that still has spring sports assignments written on it. I just never got around to updating it every week. I thought this would help me organize things better, but since I haven't updated it, the whole thing just doesn't make sense.

A bunch of cords are on the floor underneath the whiteboard. These are for the computer area, and is all hooked to a tripp-lite surge that leads under my bedroom door and into my room.

Right now on my computer desk, Danny has yet to pitch his two cans of Java Monsters. I still have yet to pitch my Nestle water bottle. Things are stacked to the left of my computer screen (from top to bottom): an extra set of headphones, the football program from Harlem/Boylan, the notepad I used at that football game, my copy of Bastian's History of Whiteside County, Danny's camera, my notebook from the Dubuque Think Session last week, my planner (another thing used for organizational purposes that I never use), and some of Mike's mail.

On the wall behind my computer is a spot usually reserved for my complimentary IHSA wall calendar (they have yet to send them out), and to the right is a corkboard that I have used for over 15 years. It takes a great amount of effort to reach over and tack something on it, thus I rarely use it. On the corkboard now are a few buttons, a picture of my uncle Scott and Great-Grandpa Cutter, an old Merrill School ribbon from 1944, a Chicago-to-Elburn Pink Line schedule, ticket stubs from Rock Island, Ottawa and the IHSA State Basketball Finals, an Ernie Banks autograph, and a business card from an editor at the Freeport paper, who is no longer there.

To the left of my desk are two two-drawer file cabinets stacked on top of each other. There are magnets, but the only thing on it is a piece of paper from a supersectional basketball game that I covered. It was on the media table and it reads "Illinois Wesleyan welcomes ... Coby Carter, NIU Sports Beat".

On top of this stack of cabinets is a bin for all of my game notes, rosters, programs, etc. It is emptied when full and put in my file cabinet when so. Also on to top of it is a chrome-green colored paper weight I bought on an art trip to Milwaukee in college.

I won't even get into detail about what's in my file cabinets and desk drawers. Let alone my bedroom and closet. I will say this about my closet: some shirts will be demoted to lounging clothes.

I'm even tired of writing about all of this.

I guess you can call me a borderline hoarder. I'd like to spend all day up here and clear things out. I tried having rummage sales, but these worked to absolutely NO avail. I can't make a profit off of this stuff, so I'm just considering donating it.

OR, on an absolute longshot, bundling and trading for things I do need. I want to set aside things that I don't want, but shouldn't really throw away. If the thrift stores won't take them, I'll simply snap a picture of these things and try to trade them away.

Whatever I do want to trade, I'll post pictures of on this Blog. I've seen many of my friends use something on Facebook called the Spring Cleaning Exchange. Perhaps if I'm really in the need of dumping stuff, I could start using that.

One of the hallmarks of the laziness that I have unfortunately obtained are the piles of folded clothes still in the baskets they were put in when laundry was done. Translation - I have no dresser. The cat will get on them. I need a dresser.

Also inside my room is a large plastic bucket (the ones commonly used for play toys and such), which I bought for a trash can purpose. This should help me get rid of the stuff in my bedroom, my closet, in my desk drawers and my file cabinets.

After the upstairs has been conquered, I'd like to work on my car.

All told, I'm trying to make things look presentable. Plus, getting rid of this stuff should make it easier for me of a moving-out takes place.

It's 4:30 a.m. as I post this. I'm going to work on getting this accomplished. Wish me luck!


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The other two facets of the improvement plan, Outside/Physical and Inside/Mental, will be written about in later entries.