Home Alone - Days 4 & 5, Epilogue

I stayed up way too late on Day 3, but can you blame me?  Therefore Day 4 was another one of those sleep deprived, just simmer kind of days.  I didn't take a ton of pics, but what I did take rank in the top 10 of any that I've taken.

Day 4 was really cool as I spent more time just dressed and enjoying that fact while I worked away at home.  There was not a mad dash for picture taking, there was not multiple outfit changes to try different combinations.  I just hit the point of being dresses and living that way for most of the day.

Talk about living out of a suitcase!

I had plans for the other side of life with a friend that evening and so I set about to repacking the totes.  It's a good thing I rechecked the house, there were a pair of black pumps still lingering in the kitchen, oh that would have been embarrassing.  My friend is someone I met at church and I would rather not open this side of my life to him.  In the context of living as a Christian I should not be afraid to be authentic with anyone, but let's save that topic for another day.  It's not simple.

I also took a good swipe at what shoes are going to Goodwill.  I had been holding on to these for years in hope of selling on eBay but I was too lazy to make that happen and honestly I just wanted to be rid of the baggage.  It turns out I took 15 pair over there on Saturday afternoon.  My clothes totes are still jammed and overflowing as I never did get around to a full clothing and shoe pow-wow to identify the bottom feeders for the donation pile.  I'll have time once school starts to get to that. 

So yeah, the trip to goodwill.  I had a huge open top box with 8 pair of size 12 heels for all to see, and the rest were in a paper grocery sack and a couple pair still brand new in their boxes.  I was a bit nervous as to who might be walking past while I'm unloading the box or worse yet that I drop it and the shoes scatter.  Thankfully it was totally low key, I plopped the stuff on the donation cart and was on my way.

I truly wish I had a local friend who could have adopted the shoes and helped her expand her horizons.  I tried to find someone in a couple chat rooms and had pictures up on Flickr of the shoes but nothing really materialized. 

Day 5 was super low key - I probably made five passes through the house to ensure that no clues were left behind.  I've made that mistake before and it had very unpleasant consequences.  It worked out in the end, but it was a hard few months that followed.

In looking back at my time home alone, I'm fairly pleased with how things shaped up.  I did get away from the house twice, not exactly the four times I was hoping for though.  I got rid of some lingering baggage of old shoes, I did organize my jewelry better, and I've made a plan for how to rearrange my totes better for future dressing sessions.

The deck has become the photo studio!

There is one other really cool thing from last week, I've turned the corner of being nervous about going out on my own deck to take pictures.  It's become second nature now.  Once I'm dressed I glance in the neighbors yard to make sure there is no one working in the garden or pool and if the coast is clear I'm out the door.  That feels like a huge improvement - there is no more hesitation.  In fact, the other night when I was leaving for Target, I hit the garage door and then walked to my car.  That means that my neighbors across the street or anyone passing by would have seen me in my garage.  I didn't mean to do that, but once I hit the button I said to myself, "no big deal..."

And I freaking went to Target!!!  Hot damn!!  I want more public time.  I don't know where or when, but I'll be posting about it here no doubt.

I'll leave you with a picture from Day 4.  I just adore this look.  After seeing nice pictures like this, I'm motivated to take down some of the earlier pictures on my Flickr feed.

Please feel free to email me, leave a comment here or check me out on Flickr.  I love make friends!