In which progress is made...
I spent my day cleaning out a closet. It's amazing how easy some things are once you just start doing them. It's like thinking about cleaning out the fridge, you hate the thought, but once you start, you realize tossing things into a garbage bag really isn't that difficult.
This process wasn't quite that simple. It was actually a little emotional and therapeutic. There were four big totes stacked up to one side of the closet, and these contained all kinds of stuff dating back to my freshman year in college. Class notes? Gone now. Old papers? Some gone, some in a stack to be filed away for future amusement and perusal. Among the ones I'm keeping, several plays written in a class that I came out of convinced that I had found my calling in life.
The biggest treasure pulled out of the mess would have to be a small collection of letters (snail mail!) from friends written during the first few months of college. Back when we were all still scared of losing touch, processing what it meant to be independent, and apparently fascinated by clip art that could allow us to create our own stationary.
Also salvaged from the abyss was a stack of hand-written sheet music from the countless hours I spent holed up in a piano practice room plunking out themes and motifs, an old collapsible music stand, my first metronome, and my baton from Intro to Conducting, a class which to this day remains the closest real-life experience I have had to what it might possibly feel like to attend Hogwarts.
Most unexpected find: a limited edition Wizard Furby still in the box.
Biggest laugh: reading the first page of the user's guide to my IBM G40 Color Monitor, which starts with, "Your monitor is heavy, so handle with care."
I still have that monitor stored down in the basement with a bunch of other interesting artifacts. That's a chore for another day.
Biggest mystery: the 35 mm camera with a roll of undeveloped film.
Biggest current regret: buying a blueberry scented candle and leaving it stored in a tote. I just pray the smell dissipates soon.
Phase two, which is all about simplifying life, is well underway.
This process wasn't quite that simple. It was actually a little emotional and therapeutic. There were four big totes stacked up to one side of the closet, and these contained all kinds of stuff dating back to my freshman year in college. Class notes? Gone now. Old papers? Some gone, some in a stack to be filed away for future amusement and perusal. Among the ones I'm keeping, several plays written in a class that I came out of convinced that I had found my calling in life.
The biggest treasure pulled out of the mess would have to be a small collection of letters (snail mail!) from friends written during the first few months of college. Back when we were all still scared of losing touch, processing what it meant to be independent, and apparently fascinated by clip art that could allow us to create our own stationary.
Also salvaged from the abyss was a stack of hand-written sheet music from the countless hours I spent holed up in a piano practice room plunking out themes and motifs, an old collapsible music stand, my first metronome, and my baton from Intro to Conducting, a class which to this day remains the closest real-life experience I have had to what it might possibly feel like to attend Hogwarts.
Most unexpected find: a limited edition Wizard Furby still in the box.
Biggest laugh: reading the first page of the user's guide to my IBM G40 Color Monitor, which starts with, "Your monitor is heavy, so handle with care."
I still have that monitor stored down in the basement with a bunch of other interesting artifacts. That's a chore for another day.
Biggest mystery: the 35 mm camera with a roll of undeveloped film.
Biggest current regret: buying a blueberry scented candle and leaving it stored in a tote. I just pray the smell dissipates soon.
Phase two, which is all about simplifying life, is well underway.