Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Need To Find a DVD I Packed Four Days Ago in an Unlabeled Bin

This post comes to you from amidst a whole entire rainforest of cardboard. Forsooth, my Penske truck and quilty furniture covers arriveth on the morrow.

If you feel like you don't own much, try moving it all. You stand within your four walls, all, "Well, this doesn't look like very much"-- and then closets and drawers and filing cabinets start opening and you realize that you actually have, in your possession, a tasseled gold lame belt.

Until I leave The Swamp, I'll operate only on what I can fit into the trunk of my Corolla when it's time to depart in a fit of light wraps and sand-ruined bathing suits in May. It's forced me to develop this acute sense of thingness, that I actually make daily, necessary contact with perhaps one percent of the items in my possession. And 99 percent of that one percent is in the spinny makeup holder on the bathroom sink.

I would have stepped on you very hard if you had told me when I first held my high school jacket to me that in fifteen years I would sit on the floor of a bare apartment in Florida, taking a razor blade to the faded blue wool and lining. I was cutting out my graduation year and stitched name, abandoning the rest. There wasn't room in the suitcase I'd set aside for clothes overflow.

I sliced, ruthless. This was befitting an almost-married lady. I had to make room for his things, his four polo shirts and one billion computer games, just as he forfeited the Daytona 500 for a non-engine-intensive evening of wineglass registry discussion. This was practical. This was Adult.

But I was crying, and I'd already packed the tissues.

but not the mydol at: mb@blondechampagne.com

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you hold down the "Alt" button, then push 0, 2, 3, and 3 on the keypad on the far right, you get é.

But I like "gold lame belt" better. :)

Cbell said...

I know exactly how you feel... I finally gave up my drum major outfits that I had kept for 20+ years, to the chagrin of my mother, who was appalled.

Although I kept the letter sweater... because I occasionally have a need for a 50s party outfit and it works wonders.

Anonymous said...

é
No way! I always wondered how to do that!
ééé

Hee! Mike- you just made my morning!

éééé
Yup, I'm a dork.

Anonymous said...

As a programmer (who actually didn't know this trick), I just had to add to the fun. Here's a site that lists ALT codes:
www.frontpagewizard.com/use_alt_keys.asp
FUN! ß Œ £

Anonymous said...

As an Army brat, I know that feeling well. Frequent purges are about the only thing I have in common with bulemics and communists, which is comforting. I've always felt that when I'm old, I won't be a crazy cat lady but a crazy filing cabinet lady.

ShannJ said...

Wow, I haven't thought about my high school jacket in years, but I'm willing to bet it's still taking up space in one of my parents closets . . . I can relate to how moving shows you how much "stuff" you have accumulated. I've moved 7 times since 1999. Ugh. We have a LOT of stuff.

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