as i lay cleaning...

I have been doing a huge amount of cleaning and paring down of the stuff that I have accumulated over the four (!) years I've lived in this beautiful bungalow. Parts of this have been amazing, like finding great mementos of childhood and years past. Other parts have been, well, let's say interesting. I'm amazed at how much random stuff I've kept over the years. Seriously random. Like my dance shoes from high school. Wha? Why keep those? Or the rose I was given by the quickie-mart guy on my twenty-first birthday in Stockton. That was sweet, but I remember it without the actual thing. I dunno...

It makes me feel like apologizing to those who have helped me move, especially in the 8 years prior to this house when I moved like 13 times. Sorry guys that I made you drag around these weighty boxes!

My hope is that my upcoming move, I will leave behind much of the "stuff" that is not so memorable. I am making a memory scrapbook to keep track of some of the more interesting scraps, and photos of some of the bulkier items which I don't want to forget.

One other thing... I have been going through all my old teaching baggage and finding that I saved a disproportionate amount of things from these years, and I don't just mean books (which I am selling, if you need kids' books, let me know!). I mean, I found a scrap of paper I must have picked up from the classroom floor that says "Harry Pothead" on it. Granted that seeing it brought back the face of the rascal who wrote it, and I did end up putting it in the scrapbook, but still. It gives you an idea of the amount of stuff I have.All I can really say is that it's a good thing that my apartment has a garbage dumpster, because I have been filling it to the brim every other day it seems. Sigh.