Well, the 39th anniversary of my birth (Friday) was really rather uneventful, as was the 2nd anniversary of my attainment of my pilot's license (Saturday).
I got to spend Friday first working, then frantically packing, then riding 6.5 hours in a car with a motion sick 7 month old. Woo hoo. I did get a Cinnabon at the Vince Lombardi Service Plaza though. That was pretty tasty.
Saturday, my mother and I cleaned her attic in preparation for putting their house on the market. It's so hard to throw things away. I am envious of my sister who can pitch just about anything -- no emotional attachment to items she no longer uses. Me, I remember when I used the item and how I felt then and what my life was like. At any rate, Katie is now the owner of her great-grandmother's doll bed, built by her great, great grandfather in 1915, among other family items.
I think that's my problem -- I love history; I love using family things. That and a bad case of anthropomorphism. Forget the secret life of bees... it's the secret life of family heirlooms. It's as if they are more than inanimate objects but are self-aware in my mind. I feel cruel throwing things away. (A plant has to be brown from stem to every last leaf for me to throw it out and even then I feel like a plant murderer!) It also feels like, by rejecting a family item, I am rejecting the family member that used/made the item.
We came home today. (Aren't you just thrilled to pieces?) The trip only took 6 hours this way.
I was going to gripe about my birthday but I think I'll restrain myself. Or at least wait for another post to do it. I'm too tired to work up a full head of steam at the moment.
;-) (You can sigh in relief now!)
6 comments:
I'm that way too. that's probably why I have one grandmother's kitchen table and the other one's bedroom outfit. I have my mom's doll high chair painted mint green. I think everything was mint green at that grandma's house. The walls for sure. The other grandmother I never knew.
Every so often I get in a guilt free throw mood. This is a good thing.
I still have ashes in a jar somewhere from the last campfire somewhere. Don't remember the occasion at the moment but it was from scouting.
Let's face it. We're hopeless.
These days, eBay can be an alternative to the dump, but it's still tough to get rid of things. I'm a packrat in a family of packrats, so I understand the trouble of getting rid of things, even if logic tells me that I won't have room for new things without clearing some space. (Just don't use Mom's answer and build a shed whenever you think the house is getting too cluttered. Don't ask how many storage sheds are on our property. Just... don't... ask...)
Not asking.
Not asking.
Not asking.
Not asking.
Not... Ok, I can't stand it!! How many??
By my count, not including structures theoretically used as work areas, there are 12 sheds/storage places. I could be missing a few. And, yes, they're all full. Overflowing, in some cases. When I feel I need a decapitation, I suggest that we may be storing some unnecessary stuff.
Wow. I don't think I'd ever be able to keep track of what's in which shed. Decapitation is so messy - and then they'd have to store you... They could add a mausoleum... (ducking!)
The point of packratting is not knowing where everything is. The point is knowing that, whatever it is, you still have it Somewhere. (That's a polite way of saying that, while we may have crud stored everywhere, darned if we know what the heck it is or why we felt compelled to keep it.)
A mausoleum would be unnecessary. We've got coyotes, crows, and ravens... ;-)
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