2023 Week 46: Clutter

With just 6 weeks to go before the year ends, I've been feeling a lot of anxiety. Have I done enough with my time on earth? I am in the mood for self-flagellation - I am inclined to say No, I Haven't. I'm reading Jane Austen's Emma and it is uncomfortable how much this description of Emma sounds like me:

But I have done with expecting any course of steady reading from Emma. She will never submit to any thing requiring industry and patience, and a subjection of the fancy to the understanding.

And then there's Emma's portfolio stuffed full of half-done paintings: 

She had always wanted to do everything, and had made more progress both in drawing and music than many might have done with so little labour as she would ever submit to.

I wonder if I'm really an Emma, who's sort of good at a few things but too flighty to apply herself. Just like how Emma wastes her potential getting distracted by silly matchmaking games; I too get distracted by... my little moneymaking schemes?

Yes, I can say my life feels cluttered with side hustles. The rabbit boarding and grooming business has taken a life of its own, and it is high time to set limits and boundaries. Meaning it's time to turn down business. It is amusing that this time last year I went through a parallel awakening and started turning down freelance writing clients - and now I'm turning down the boarders.

Another side hustle that's roaring is my second-hand book business. OK I'm kidding about "roaring", but it's definitely getting un-fun having to deal with Carousell's limitations and irritating buyers. I need to learn to ghost those instead of people-pleasingly replying every message I get...

On top of it all I still have to work at the bookstore 4 days a week!! Spread thin.

I need to remember that - financially - I am doing more than okay. And that these side hustles are really just for fun. I must not let them grow to the point where they cease being fun.

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Bunny tenants at the moment:

Rabbit Zai, very sweet but very territorial - turns into another creature once there is another bunny in the same room. If it's a girl, he's merely curious and active, but if it's a boy... he turns into a beast.

Mongsil and Tongtong are in the other room with their fancy glamping setup. They seem to be settling in except that Tongtong is obsessed with humping Mongsil right now. Is the new space threatening his manhood? 

Other signs of life at home...