I swear, I've got taste. I swear.

I look around my room these days and, more often than not, I find that I have allowed 2 piles of stuff to build up. One in front of my dresser, generally consisting of various bags and discarded clothing items that couldn't be bothered to make it to my laundry basket; the other around my desk chair, made up of magazines, catalogs, shoes, junk mail and anything else I can arrange my feet to avoid. Also, my desk seems to accumulate drink containers at an alarming rate.

Now I JUST rectified this situation last weekend. Wait, it wasn't last weekend because I was gone then. It was two weekends ago, but the point is that it hasn't built up for THAT long (in Dana Mess Time). Also, I wasn't even around much in the last couple weeks. I work all day and frequently do stuff weekday evenings too and was GONE last weekend so WHY can't I seem to keep my personal area maintained?

*sigh*

Part of it may have to do with the fact that even when everything is "put away" in my room, it still looks like a cluttered mass of boxes and randomness.

I'm trying to resolve not to live like a refugee, but apparently it's difficult.

That wasn't what I meant to write about at all incidentally. I was going to mention my recent desire to actually acquire things that I think will benefit me, be they books, artwork, classes, whatever (and also a demi-promise to support artists I admire by actually purchasing their material, no matter how famous and well-off they already are). I treated myself to a couple of CD's, one of which I had just been talking about to a couple friends 2 days prior. We were talking about Liz Phair, I mentioned that I only had Whitechocolatespaceegg (which is a great album!) and Dirk said I should definitely get Exile in Guyville, that I would really like it. Fast-forward a couple days later, I'm standing in Borders, frustrated (but not surprised) not to see Amanda Palmer's new disc in the racks. Luckily, "Palmer" is pretty close to "Phair", so I saw and I grabbed. Leaving the Music department, the Ting Ting's album caught my eye and, as I have been meaning to get that for some time, I snagged that too. And upon reaching the checkout line, I was faced with Steve Martin's new autobiography Born Standing Up. It was one of those days. I stood in line, panicking a little at the thought of buying ALL THREE when I had a moment of clarity. I asked myself, "Will getting these things improve me in any way?" and I decided, "Yes."

Exile in Guyville is great, despite the fact that my computer refuses to acknowledge it.

We Started Nothing is fun, quirky music that has a great dance beat with a layer of something else going on.

Born Standing Up is terrific. I've always loved Martin's writing and this is no exception.

I'm very affected by my surroundings, so I feel that adapting them to feel like I'm in MY space is important. However that's currently limited to marking my territory with flip-flops and copies of Entertainment Weekly.

UPDATE, THE NEXT MORNING: Just noticed that I blogged on a Saturday night. Who does that?