Actually..................
I've just told a lie, because I came up with this much of the title:
"Some Christmas Lights Get Ugly Before They Get Pretty"
several days ago and found it here today either patiently or impatiently (not sure which, but I suspect the latter) waiting for me to finish what I was intending to do with it.
And, if you're reading this now, that means that I've finally gotten A ROUND TUIT.
And it's absolutely-required that this should be ready by this very afternoon (July 24, 2017).
But.................
!!! Enough of my rambling introduction !!!
Here's how things are playing out:
1. My goddaughter ( @tecnosgirl ) suggested this site to me several weeks ago. I applied to join and was accepted about a day later.
2. However, I was only able to do a partial login. It was like I was in a kind of limbo where I had been accepted and was on my way to getting logged on but wasn't quite there to where I could participate in any way, shape, or form except for a couple of very brief moments.
3. Eventually, I decided that changing the browser I used might solve the problem, so I closed my Firefox browser, opened my Chrome browser, and made an attempt -- thankfully, successful!!! -- to log on.
4. So, I decided to write my first piece -- which was the one where I introduced myself:
https://steemit.com/introduction/@ainsleyjo1952/ainsleyjo1952-here-getting-her-toes-wet-written-on-july-13-14-2017
5. Not too long after that, I wrote my second piece -- one giving you the reader some insight into my tastes in food, plus a few other bits of trivia:
https://steemit.com/food/@ainsleyjo1952/am-i-a-peanut-butter-and-pickle-sandwich-begun-on-july-15-and-finished-on-july-16-2017
6. Sometime and somewhere between when I posted my first piece and now, I made a comment that my life (both Online and Off-line) was starting to remind me of getting ready to decorate for Christmas -- and I promised to write about this soon.
7. As of today..."soon" has arrived (that is, after I get back from the "reading room")...Back again & feeling much better!!! So, the rest of this will be about how my life at this time reminds me of decorating for Christmas -- with special emphasis on the lights part...
Some Christmas Lights -- And Some Life Organization Efforts -- Get Ugly Before They Get Pretty
I believe that most people who decorate for Christmas know what I'm talking about.
It's that time of year again when all of those boxes and bags of Christmas lights and other decorations come out of the attic/closet(s)/special areas in the garage/self-storage places, such as 53rd Street Secure Storage in Anderson, Indiana, which has been serving me well since shortly before I became homeless back in 2013 (but more about that in the future)/wherever else and take their places around you so that you can go through them.
Actually, it really ISN'T that time of year again but, instead, the first day of the last week in July. But we can always pretend -- even to the point of wandering over to SnowDays to create a snowflake ( Example #1 Example #2 Example #3 ).
Okay! The mood is set!
Now, you might have actually bought some new Christmas lights to use this year. However, when it comes to Christmas lights, the motto isn't "OUT with the OLD and IN with the NEW!!! Instead, the new lights just join the ever-growing family of lights. At this time next year, these new lights will be included in the traditional tangle.
I'm not exactly sure why -- Could it be that a little mouse brings them something from the pantry every night after everybody is sound asleep? -- but, by the time that it's time to put the decorations away until the following Christmas Season (and I have a story about THAT to tell you in the future), the strings of lights have become too fat for their original containers, and the only solution is to gather them up and place them inside the boxes and/or bags.
It also seems as if -- no matter how careful you are when it comes to coiling each strand of lights into a cinnamon roll shape before placing it into a bag or box -- everything has gotten tangled together by the time it's time to decorate again.
Not only that, but there are a few ornaments mixed up in the tangled mess as well.
Of course, each strand needs to be tested to see if it's a strand that's nearly fully-lighted; a strand that has enough working lights on it that it can be used; or a strand that's completely dark -- or close enough -- to where it can be tossed back into a bag or box until there's time to decide on its fate. Why not just throw out the last option? That will be explained the next time I write something with decorating for Christmas as its main theme...
Anyway -- believe it or not -- the time will finally arrive when everything is ready to be put in its own special place in the display.
That's when all of the lights will be activated with placing one or more switches in the ON position -- and the results will be ABSOLUTELY-AWESOME!!!
This experience is a lot like the arrival of one -- or, sometimes, more -- beautiful baby/babies after hours of difficult labor!!! Need I say more!?!
And so it goes with organizing my life -- both Online and Off-line.
I'm already in the second half of 2017 and still working on this in a major way since I first became hooked-up to the Internet at home -- assisted in this by Michelle ( @tecnosgirl ) on the very day (December 12, 2016) that I turned 16 for the fourth time.
At this time, there's no time for further explaining why I'm not further along now than I'd thought I'd be at the time except to say that -- in a number of ways -- LIFE got in the way.
Since I'm working on another project with a deadline that is absolutely NoLaterThanToday, I will wait to go into more detail another time with the suggested "another time" being when I have more to show for it.
In the meantime, I'll just keep on writing and doing what I can when I can -- as well as realizing that, even when I'm as caught up as I want to be at the moment, I still won't be caught up, because, unlike a Christmas display, life is a work-in-progress...
And, on this note, I'd like to share a meaningful writing-set-to-music that became a hit back when I was around the same age as Michelle's daughter, Ryann, who was written about so beautifully here:
https://steemit.com/life/@tecnosgirl/my-daughter-a-purdue-student-officially
And so goes my life...and so goes all life...