The Countdown...

No, this is not a blog about the end of the world at the conclusion of the Mayan calendar, nor is it about the ever so vague predictions of Nostradamus, nor a prediction based upon the Chinese astrological calendar that predicted 2008, the year of the Golden Pig, would be one of the most financially prosperous in recent and distant memory...a year which we all wish we could forget for any of a zillion financial reasons/predicaments/situations/disasters.

This is about something much more pertinent and amazing. It is the countdown to me unpacking all my junk in my new place. I started with probably just over 15 boxes, of which i have managed to find discreet places for them or managed to unpack them completely...yay for me. The day started with the count at 8 boxes. After consolidating more work papers, somehow managing to throw an entire box of papers away, and re-arranging all my video game junk (which i consolidated into another box with other technology stuff), i am down to 5 freaking boxes. I also managed to consolidate a set of 6 plastic drawers into one small plastic mesh box, which i don't count, but what i consider a moral victory as well.

Now comes the hard part...you can only fold a piece of paper in half so many times, and i am reaching the manageable limit of consolidation before i need to start changing my moral convictions and prioities to find more crap to throw away. So what should i throw away? I have of course some stuff i can't throw away for legal reasons. But i also have stuff that is quite subjective...like old programs and stuff from graduations (undergrad and graduate), musicals i have attended, golf tournaments i have be to, random pictures that have no current pertinence, old files that may or may not become significant (most likely not), and of course, for anyone that knows me, my memorabilia stuff that i have managed to collect over time...including autographed cards, jersey cards (where there is a swatch of the actual player's jersey attached to the card), comics, magazines, bobble heads, and other things that any sensible woman would throw away in a heartbeat. But i am not sensible, and i am not a woman, so it makes things more complicated. What to throw out, what to save...you'd think that after leaving a 4 year relationship these kinds of decisions would be pretty simple to make in comparison, but then for some reason, they are not.

Obviously this post is going nowhere as of this point, but hang in there, because there is a point, and it's started getting me to think about what is really important. For example, i saved all the stuff i spend money on. If i got it for free, perhaps i didn't think so much of it...not that i threw it away, cause it may have fallen in one of the following categories, but there is always more significance to things that we work to obtain.

I have saved programs and small trinkets from events that i have attended that i can remember or have memories for. My ex "encouraged" me to throw away all the letters and such from past relationships while we were together. I am not sure if i am upset at this point, but life is about memories and having those memories discarded makes me wonder if i should have...not that i had even ever gone back to read them in the last 5-10 years, but, well, i just wonder if they are things that should just that easily discarded.

I saved all my video game systems that i have accumulated since moving to california. I got rid of my PS because i can use the games on my PS2...which i still have along with my Nintendo 64...which is a total piece of junk, but then i bought it and a few games, so my cheap-ass self won't let me throw it away yet...yet...but the day is coming...this is the next likely thing to go

I saved all the letters from family that i have received over the last 15 years living in California. Even little letters and scraps of paper where my family sent me some money or something and included a note with it. Call me crazy, but i will never throw those away. I'm not sure why i have such a strong conviction to keep them, but i'm sure in the future (especially the distant future) i will not regret saving these things.

I saved all the pictures that i have taken, and have even taken certain digital pictures (not nearly as many pictures that i have on digital media) and transferred them to actual albums that i can pull out at any time and look at. Seriously, having pictures on DVD isn't worth crap because how often do we really turn on the computer, find the DVD, load it up in the computer, and scroll through old photos? I don't think anything will ever replace an album that you can pick up and relive the past...even for just a few minutes.

In the end, to conclude, i still have 5 boxes of stuff that i'm trying to downsize...but maybe 5 boxes of stuff is okay for me to keep...any thoughts?