Run Baby Run

Later:

I've done the laundry and stored away the items.

Earlier I ordered a banana leaf wicker magazine rack to place at the side of my bed so I can corral my notebook and books inside it in the morning. All the better to make it easier to make my bed to give me instant cheer.

The Norah Jones CD Feels Like Home is on its way here. I'm missing only one of Norah's albums-is it New York City?

Don't feel like cooking as I have no energy. Will most likely have some cereal and cook tomorrow night.

My love of order is most likely an inborn trait. I responded to a Real Simple question: how do you keep the main areas of your home clutter-free?

First: I detest knick-knacks so don't buy anything thus my coffee table and buffet server are neat. The only items ever on my coffee table are the wooden egg carved with an African design, the trio of candles I received as a housewarming present at my other apartment and a tiny book of beautiful photos titled Face Time. On the server is a photo of my parents in a maple frame, a bowl with turquoise stones and a crystal jam jar a long-lost friend gave me.

On top of the bookcase are three picture frames. My desktop has the most clutter.

The trick is to stop yourself and not keep buying things. When one new thing comes in one thing should go out. I also don't have "collections" like some people do: knick-knack graveyards out in the open for everyone to see. Your apartment is not a diary so keep private things private while you're at it.

My secret to maintaining order is that I don't create messes to begin with! I can live with a little dirt however I cannot live in a mess. I hope Real Simple uses my suggestions in one of their magazines.

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Have finished reading The Sartorialist and will buy the book to use as inspiration for dressing. It's a look book of people on the street that Scott Schuman shot for his web site, www.Thesartorialist.com. I'm particularly inspired to loosely recreate a look styled by a young woman in Italy.

I would love to be singled out for such a photograph.

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Well now: I decided I had to have matching towels so I'm going back to buy two towels in a lighter shade of pink. I can store them from the darkest on the bottom to the lightest on the top-from hot pink to rose to peppermint. A little bit Type A do you suppose? Of course.

Also wanted to buy a moss-green-and-white striped pitcher that was featured in the O magazine however I'm going to quit while I'm ahead. I want to organize the storage boxes on the bottom of the coat closet so that in the off-season I can store the air conditioner there.

Right now I have no space on the bookshelves for any more books. I could buy maybe The Sartorialist and that is the only book. I wish I had space for more books. There's an IKEA black wooden bookcase I could get down the road however I worry it would monopolize the wall where the smaller bookcase is now. I could always weed my books, right?

Most of the books in my collection are fashion and poetry and memoir with a smattering of useful and practical self-help guides like Don Greene's Fight Your Fear and Win. I suppose I could buy notable books and read them and then donate them to a thrift shop as a way of supporting authors and giving the books a second life with others who cannot afford to buy them retail. That would be the virtuous thing to do.

Yes: I will donate to the Salvation Army three books. I have two full bags to send to the thrift shop and a third bag full of wooden skirt hangers.

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I bought the towels and shipped the bags to Sal's so now the apartment is neat and tidy with no bags cluttering the floor. I donated the book Target Underwear and a Vera Wang Gown because I wasn't impressed with it so didn't feel the need to keep it on my shelf. Browsing my collection: I've decided to begin reading the book Brown Girl, Brownstones that I picked up at a book sale years ago and have yet to read.

Right now I'm between books waiting for Patti Smith's memoir Just Kids to arrive. I bought her poetry collection Babel in the early 1980s when I was a teen. She is a great talent.

Alas one of her albums I couldn't bring myself to buy because one of the song titles had a racial epithet in the title. I do not know why she chose that word or what the song was intended to be about. Maybe she was referring to the fact that she was someone cast out of the mainstream rock-n-roll arena. That I do not know. I would rather not hear that word bandied about in a song. I have a Fugees CD and it's a great album however there's one song where that word is repeated over and over and I just don't get it.

I'm listening to Sheryl Crow's Tuesday Night Music Club as I type in here.

It's so good to have no demands just for one day. All I did was go to the gym and do 30 minutes on the treadmill. Nothing else beckoned. Tomorrow I will return to the gym and do the treadmill again. That is all I do now. I want to lose 4 lbs. I give myself until my birthday to do this.

Would like to buy a pair of striped jeans I saw on the Loft web site. I have a $25 savings card so I hope the jeans are still there when I want to buy them. One of the books I browsed in my collection as I weeded it was a fashion book written by a woman who is the "Dr. of Closetology." I took the quiz and found out I'm a Modernist Natural style type whatever that's supposed to be.

I'm having an image consultant come to my apartment and look at the clothes in my closet and suggest new additions. First she talks to you about what you own and then you go shopping with her to find new items. All I want: a pair of white pants and a pair of neat jeans that will fit and that I'll look good in. [I'm not convinced I look good in jeans. I've told you this before.]

Now. I'm fatigued. As I've been lately: fatigued all the time. Would love to talk on and on about fashion only my energy is beginning to flag so let me go.

Enjoy your day.