(no subject)

So here's what we decided in the end:

Mum, dad and the kids are going on holiday today. I'm going to stay behind, and then go up on the train on Wednesday (maybe Tuesday if I'm feeling up for it) and spend the last couple of days with them. It gives me a chance to recharge my batteries, do some of the stuff I planned to do this week when I thought I wasn't going at all, and when I do go it'll be a bit easier knowing it's only for a few days.

It turned out to be a pretty good thing I wasn't going with mum and dad though. Not needing the extra seat means they have room for more stuff, and - man. Today when they were packing the house was more bag than house. Dad's already told me I may as well get a return ticket on the train, because there probably won't be space for me coming back either. Mum then quietly, half-jokingly begged me for my space on the train, so she didn't have to come back in the car. Maybe there will be room by next Saturday - there's a lot of stuff that might be eaten or used up over the course of the week. Still, that's self-catering (British) holidays for you. With three kids.

Meanwhile, my sister called last night because my ON was at ours, and I had to fight with him to get him to come off the computer and talk to her. When he passed the phone off to mum, apparently my sister asked her if I was 'like a kid with him' when we fought, and when mum said no, she's an adult and he's a child, my sister asked 'is she too much like an adult, is she too full on?'. Then she said she'd been 'thinking about it over the past couple of weeks, and -', and my mum cut her off, because holiday stuff, and because my sister has no right to tell us how to behave with her kid when she's not here, bar us abusing him. But apparently she's been thinking about it. Fuck's sake.

Anyway. My plan is to get my bedroom a bit tidier while my parents are away. It seems almost impossible, but I feel like I'm close to having it actually tidy? I need to make a list, but I spent the morning wrapping a few ornaments in bubble-wrap to take them to the charity shop. They're all ready to go now. Most of my other stuff is either going there or to the library, or somewhere specific, apart from a couple of region 1 dvds. I'm going to have a look in a drawer under my bed and get rid of some old books I don't look at anymore, and then hopefully I can put some of my many boxes under there. And then I'll have the whole side of my bed back, and a bedside table that doesn't have anything in I don't think. And then when I clear a few sides - I'll be almost done, I think. Yippee!

Partly related to this, I am sort of re-reading a book at the moment where the bad guy is called Zebulon, while also playing a computer game where the bad guy is called Zarpedon. I don't need this many Z---on people in my life.

(no subject)

I'm all wound up about my sister's stupid phonecall now. I've been having conversations with her in my head all day. For fuck's sake. Then I started worrying about how her and her asshole-ish, sometimes abusive partner would be doing without the kids around to 'keep things civil' for - and then I started thinking "what if they have a big fight and she turns up here saying she's staying over for a few days, since the beds are free".

Hopefully she won't. She always seems to turn up whenever mum and dad are away on holiday - but I don't think she'd just turn up expecting to stay. Especially without calling mum or dad first. Unless she was drunk? But hopefully she and her partner are just staying out of each other's way, especially without the kids around to chase around after.

Anyway. Happier things. I cleared out the drawer under my bed full of books. I figured it was a good idea, if I wanted to take some books to the library soon - and I think I was a little afraid to do it, in case I decided I loved and had to keep ALL the books once I saw them again, and didn't get the space I was hoping for. So I decided to get on with it. And got rid of most of them. Some I kept, old books that mean a lot to me, one that I still would like to read some day. It was weird, because some I knew on seeing them that I had to keep them, some I knew I wanted to get rid of, and some I still felt very strongly about, but knew I could get rid of, because I needed the space. And I probably wasn't ever going to read them again. It's weird realising that you love some things but don't need them. Sort of liberating and sad all at once.

Anyway, after all that - I managed to get exactly TWO boxes in the drawer. These are like my Playstation boxes and polystyrene boxes for ornaments - things I might need again if I'm moving things or sending them for repairs or something. The PS4 box and the Wii U box fit into the drawer - alongside the little stack of books I was keeping - nothing else. But it gave me better access to the bedside table, and it turns out the PS3 box fit in the 'cupboard' part of that, and my laptop's box fit in the drawer. So much for using that for anything else. Then I managed to fit a few boxes inside each other, and presto! Almost a clear space next to my bed. It needs a hoover. Badly.

Then this evening I was drawing my curtains, and I've been meaning to take one down and adjust it for a while, because since I put the blackout blinds up it always seems to pull really hard on the outer ring when I close them, as though I made the blind too narrow, and it doesn't cover the side of the window so light gets in, which it doesn't with the other curtain. But! They're drawn now and it doesn't seem to be pulling as much, and I turned off my light and I think it's wrapping around the side and keeping the light out a bit better. It must have been getting caught on the boxes. So tidying my room has seen an instant improvement. Hurrah! Curtain adventures.