Cleaning Out My Life
I'm going to be moving at some point soon, God willing. Part of the process is going through my room and trashing the stuff that doesn't need to be held onto. I've been finding some interesting things in the process.
There was a $200 credit on Delta Airlines that I would have liked to have used to go to visit F3 last Autumn. It expired at the end of October, so now it's torn up and in the big garbage bag that has become the receptacle for things that don't need to be retained.
I found a $75 savings bond that was issued in 1999 for a speech competition that I entered for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. I'm glad to at least have confirmation that it wasn't lost in a black hole; I'm not sure how to get it appraised, but I suppose it doesn't matter because I'm just glad to have it again.
I've probably found every piece of mail that Mudflap ever sent me, and there's been quite a bit of it over the years. For a girl who claimed not to have any interest in me, she sure wouldn't leave me alone. I also found a picture of the two of us from our second date back in December of 1999; we went to my school's Christmas formal dance. It was my senior year, her sophomore year. I was on my lesser-used AIM screen name a month or two ago, and she saw me and told me about her father, who's apparently been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy; I frequently note that one of the greatest gifts I ever got was a book that he bought for me for that Christmas, even though he barely knew me at the time.
I found all of my receipts and brochures and such from my two trips to Europe, and filed them accordingly; I also finally threw out a bunch of mail that I'd received over the years, nowhere near all of it, but the really unimportant bits and pieces. For example, Friar Dave and I knew this girl named Christy (a few of the Vagrants or former Vagrants who read this blog will know who I'm talking about), and for a time her cousin and I were somewhat interested in each other, back around 1998 or so. I found an old letter and some pictures in an envelope, and threw them out.
Recruiting literature from the Navy and Marine Corps. Canned.
I found a card from Valentine's Day 2002, from my friend Brittany. She was dating a guy I was in the military with, but I think Brittany and I had more in common; Wild Bill was kind of a dweeb. Well, actually, he was a total dweeb. Anyway, she was doing a project a week or two earlier about botched cosmetic surgery, and I helped her out with it on my computer since she didn't have the faintest idea what the hell she was doing. If I ever see another computer screen with ugly, deformed, botched breast jobs on it, I will run screaming the other way.
Pictures. Old newspapers. Spiral notebooks. A lot of it's getting tossed, because as much of an archivist and historian as I've become, most of ths is trivial crap that will never have any degree of relevance in my life again. In some ways, it's therapeutic. In other ways, it's a reminder of things lost that can't be regained; you'd think that as a historian I'd be used to it, but it's not that easy. If it were April writing this post, she'd focus on the "therapeutic" part, as she's the eternal optimist.
That's not my style, though. For what it's worth, I've had a couple of decent days lately. I hung out with both Super Dave and Mormon Buddha yesterday, and I'm looking forward to having dinner with Mormon Buddha and his wife and kids on Monday night. Until then, it's a running Sports Night marathon while I reread the note that Mudflap and her heinous friend left on my windshield during Autumn of 2000, when I'd just started college, and throwing away recruiting posters featuring the Navy SEALs.
It is what it is.
UPDATE: Six air sickness bags.
UPDATE: Dodging assassins two by two, they want your ruby slippers and your little dog too.
There was a $200 credit on Delta Airlines that I would have liked to have used to go to visit F3 last Autumn. It expired at the end of October, so now it's torn up and in the big garbage bag that has become the receptacle for things that don't need to be retained.
I found a $75 savings bond that was issued in 1999 for a speech competition that I entered for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. I'm glad to at least have confirmation that it wasn't lost in a black hole; I'm not sure how to get it appraised, but I suppose it doesn't matter because I'm just glad to have it again.
I've probably found every piece of mail that Mudflap ever sent me, and there's been quite a bit of it over the years. For a girl who claimed not to have any interest in me, she sure wouldn't leave me alone. I also found a picture of the two of us from our second date back in December of 1999; we went to my school's Christmas formal dance. It was my senior year, her sophomore year. I was on my lesser-used AIM screen name a month or two ago, and she saw me and told me about her father, who's apparently been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy; I frequently note that one of the greatest gifts I ever got was a book that he bought for me for that Christmas, even though he barely knew me at the time.
I found all of my receipts and brochures and such from my two trips to Europe, and filed them accordingly; I also finally threw out a bunch of mail that I'd received over the years, nowhere near all of it, but the really unimportant bits and pieces. For example, Friar Dave and I knew this girl named Christy (a few of the Vagrants or former Vagrants who read this blog will know who I'm talking about), and for a time her cousin and I were somewhat interested in each other, back around 1998 or so. I found an old letter and some pictures in an envelope, and threw them out.
Recruiting literature from the Navy and Marine Corps. Canned.
I found a card from Valentine's Day 2002, from my friend Brittany. She was dating a guy I was in the military with, but I think Brittany and I had more in common; Wild Bill was kind of a dweeb. Well, actually, he was a total dweeb. Anyway, she was doing a project a week or two earlier about botched cosmetic surgery, and I helped her out with it on my computer since she didn't have the faintest idea what the hell she was doing. If I ever see another computer screen with ugly, deformed, botched breast jobs on it, I will run screaming the other way.
Pictures. Old newspapers. Spiral notebooks. A lot of it's getting tossed, because as much of an archivist and historian as I've become, most of ths is trivial crap that will never have any degree of relevance in my life again. In some ways, it's therapeutic. In other ways, it's a reminder of things lost that can't be regained; you'd think that as a historian I'd be used to it, but it's not that easy. If it were April writing this post, she'd focus on the "therapeutic" part, as she's the eternal optimist.
That's not my style, though. For what it's worth, I've had a couple of decent days lately. I hung out with both Super Dave and Mormon Buddha yesterday, and I'm looking forward to having dinner with Mormon Buddha and his wife and kids on Monday night. Until then, it's a running Sports Night marathon while I reread the note that Mudflap and her heinous friend left on my windshield during Autumn of 2000, when I'd just started college, and throwing away recruiting posters featuring the Navy SEALs.
It is what it is.
UPDATE: Six air sickness bags.
UPDATE: Dodging assassins two by two, they want your ruby slippers and your little dog too.
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