The last of the pre-ordered shirts went out this morning. Now I only have regular orders to fill. I’m glad to have the work. I’m also glad to be sending things out of my house. During the moments when I was too physically tired and brain dead for t-shirts I noodled around on Netflix and ended up watching a couple of episodes of Hoarders. I found the psychology involved fascinating, both the revealed motivations of the hoarders and my own psychology as I watched. I came away wanting to organize and de-clutter my whole house, which I suspect is a common reaction. Hoarders is fascinating in part because it is a magnification of things I do all the time. My house gets cluttered and messy. I don’t always clean it up quickly. I stack boxes in corners until I have time to deal with them. However I’m also aware that there is a fundamental difference. I am not a hoarder. I’m more likely to get rid of something and need it later than I am to keep something I’ll never use. My spaces get messy, particularly when I’m in the midst of a project, but then I clean it all up to make space for the next project.
In happier viewing, I watched Captain America: The first Avenger. I’ve seen it before, but this re-watch made me realize that I’ve crossed the line over into being a Captain America fan. I need to see Avengers again. I also watched Mirror Mirror for the first time. I really liked it. It was lovely, occasionally clever, and interesting. My feminist brain was not quite sure what to make of it, as the text of the film had messages of female empowerment, but Snow White herself was self-effacing and submissive through much of the film. I’ve decided to take the submissive aspects as a deliberate character choice rather than a social statement. Even a shy girl can learn to be strong and do it in a way that does not change her into someone else.
Having cleared my brain from shirts and shows, hopefully I’ll be ready next week to prep kids for school, ship the last of the merchandise to WorldCon, put Howard on a plane for GenCon, and (hopefully, maybe) open up my writing thoughts so that I have an answer for the question “What are you planning to write next?”