Organized or OCD?

I'll admit it - I like organization.  I think things are just easier if they are symmetrical, organized, color coordinated, right with the world.  I never knew this was an obsession with me until a few years ago at work. I was part of a group working on getting ready for a review of our practices by a national organization. If we "passed" their scrutiny it would mean big dollars for the company. We would have team meetings that lasted for hours. One of the doctors started bringing big bags of peanut M&M's for us to eat while we worked. One day everyone started commenting at how I ate my M&M's.  I would separate them by color and only eat them in groups. If I just had one of a certain color I would eat it with a complementary color - green with blue, yellow with orange, orange with red. Brown had to be eaten alone (do they even make brown any more? but I digress).  I didn't even realize I did that until the others pointed it out. Since then I have noticed other things that I do that just have to be that way or it kind of messes with my head.  My shirts and blouses are separated in my closet by color.  I can't even think about stitching a needlework project that isn't symmetrical, probably why I won't do a historic sampler - those women were all over the place with their stitches - YIKES! Freaks me out!

For years my stitching supplies have been a mess - yes, it bothered me but I no matter how hard I tried, the floss ended up being a mess.  A few weeks ago I was in northern AZ and I went to an antique shop just browsing while I was waiting for my husband. I found this cool 6 drawer chest that was the perfect thing for all my stitching stuff. I snapped it up!  Now I have sorted my piles of floss into these drawers and things seem so much more peaceful in my stitching world.

Before - notice the cabinet in the background...

After...

more after...

Getting that done made me feel so much better. Maybe I'll be better about getting projects done now.  I have lots to do so maybe this is a very good thing.

I have carried some of this into my job as well. At the law firm I had every case color coordinated. For example - baby cases were in pink, a death case was in black, sometimes the binder color was based on the name - green binders for Mr. Green, etc. It kept things organized in my mind, and it was easy to tell the attorney where to look for something if I wasn't there.

My binders at work- color coordinated labels of course!

Now to my other passions.
Flowers:  
 I planted some sunflower seeds late in July and today a sunflower opened - yeah! I didn't have any last year and I missed their smiling faces.

I also planted some pumpkin seeds that are coming up now. I am bound and determined to give my grandbabies home grown pumpkins for Halloween one of these years. Maybe before I die I'll figure out the perfect time to plant them in AZ. I haven't had much luck the last 3 tries.

 Last but not least Flour:  I am going to Sedona to visit my son this weekend so I had to be the good Mom and bake him some cookies. These are chocolate brownie cookies with chocolate chips and dark chocolate M&M's. He loves dark chocolate so I think these will be a hit with him.  We are going to celebrate his promotion to Managing Editor of the Red Rock News - so proud of his accomplishments!  Now I'm off to get things "organized" for my road trip. 

I will admit that I do have my messes, but they are "organized messes" at least in my mind.  So, no I'm not OCD, I'm just quirky.

Photo Friday - On The Road

This is on the road to northern AZ a few weeks ago - it was just starting to rain, it was a beautiful day, solitude and good music playing. Can't get much better than this.

Photo Friday - First Light

I have struggled to find a good picture for this challenge. In AZ we don't have spectacular sunrises, and when we do you have to be there at the precise moment with the best camera to get a good shot.  Bill and I get up before sunrise on Saturday mornings to go bike riding with our cycling group. This was taken last Saturday on the way to the meet up. We had some interesting clouds which was unusual. The sun coming up over the Superstition Mountains was really wonderful, but I couldn't get a picture - mainly because we were on the freeway and it would be bad form to stop the truck to get a photo - and my husband would have freaked out at me if I had asked ... men are funny that way!

My Thoughts on Cycling - and Life

My wheels - my buddy - I love her!

Most of you know that I am a weekend warrior - I bicycle with a group for 30 miles every Saturday morning. It has been hard keeping up but I keep working at getting better. I WILL NOT be left behind - must be part of that Redfield thing that we talk about in my family. I also go to the gym 3 days a week but it isn't the same as riding a road bike. 

In our cycling group I'm the oldest and female, while most of the riders are men, doctors, and in their 30's or 40's, and they are competitive.  Just let some outsider ride by at a good clip and they are all off chasing him like a hound with a fox. Us women (there are 4 others who come sporatically) are content to be at the back of the pack, and when they take off like crazy men we just laugh cuz we know that eventually they will get tired and hopefully realize that there are some of us still behind them, and they must wait for us, for after all, we are a team. 

As the weeks have gone on I've been learning about what it means to be a good team member on a cycling team.  One thing is that the leader needs to be constantly changing so that one person doesn't get too tired.  This week I was in the lead as we left the meeting place.  The wind was blowing pretty hard in my face and I stuggled to keep my speed at 15 MPH for about 3 miles. 2 of the docs behind me were talking away, enjoying their conversation.  Then one of them broke in front of me and said "you are working your butt off up here, let me take the lead" and I gladly let him. It was much easier riding behind someone who was breaking the wind a bit. That's how life should be. When you see someone struggling, take their burden for a bit, until they can handle it again.  On another section it is uphill, desolate and the wind is always in your face. We stayed together as a group with the strongest rider in the lead through that section and stayed going the same speed so no one got left behind.  Why isn't life that way?

This week we were joined by 2 other riders who were expert riders (I could tell by their leg muscles and their bike attire) and it was obvious that they could go fast.  For a while they stayed with our group and I enjoyed riding behind 4 guys going 19 MPH without even pedaling. Drafting really does work. Sometimes let others do the work and just enjoy being carried along - as long as that is okay with them.

Then there is warning the others about oncoming traffic, road hazards and things of interest - mainly roadkill. We should look out for others.

Coming back to our meeting place the wind was at our backs so the riding was much easier. We were able to ride at 20-24 MPH and had a blast racing along for the last 5 miles.  That's how life should be too - enjoy life when the going is easy because you never know when you'll have that wind in your face holding you back again.

Photo Friday - Scenic Wonder

This week's photo challenge is scenic wonder. Montana is known as the "Big Sky Country". This picture reminds me of why. This was taken outside of Livingston.