I am a major candy eater...so it is no surprise that I have interesting candy containers that could be used as other storage everywhere. All of my earrings have been stored in a gummy bear box for a long time and I pack my makeup in another similar tin. Today I get rid of one of these. This kind has always been my least favorite, even though I think the most interesting, because it is so hard to open!
As a kid I always hated catseye marbles. A few years ago I got this yellow marble for Christmas...and I could never bring myself to get rid of it. It never ceases to amaze me how hard it is to get rid of something the longer I hold onto it. That is precisely why I started this blog, and why, even on a night when I am exhausted as today I will try to choose one item still to get rid of. This weekend a trip to goodwill to donate everything! I will have to print up papers so my items can lead people back to here!
A good friend left Austin today to study abroad for the fall semester. Usually this would not be a big deal, but this time I will not be in Austin when he returns. I met Jose my second year at UT. He was a friend of my roommates. I actually met him the Christmas of my first year but didn't know anything about him. I also didn't like him because of it, he just seemed so strange. He started school the next year. After church nearly every Sunday Jose would come over to make lunch or dinner at our apartment and we quickly became good friends. Soon I began partying with him and spending time with him nearly every day whether it was lunch, dinner, or during a workout. Sometimes he would stop by the store where I worked and every weekend we would party. I'm not sure how I survived my second year of school with the amount of partying we did. We danced when no one else danced and continued to dance even after the party died down around us. But we also made pizza, did ab workouts, and ate in the school cafeteria together. Over the years he became my best friend.
His second year of school, my third, saw us living together in a house with two other people. Here our friendship continued to grow as we watched "I Love New York" and "America's Next Top Model" together on Tuesdays when I got home from class and he had the day off. We continued to party, but I also got a boyfriend so I didn't spend all my time with Jose any more and while we grew apart, we remained close still. I met more people through Jose than I have in the rest of my college life. While I'm not friends with all of these people, I still feel that the amount of time I spent enriching my social abilities because of him allowed me to be the person I am today. In the last four years I have grown along with Jose and he will always hold a special place in my heart. I don't know if we will grow up and live near each other, but I hope that we stay in contact. I know I am horrible at keeping in touch with people I do not see often, and I fear this could be nearly the end of my friendship with Jose. But I will invite him to my wedding, and send him pictures of the children I don't plan on having. He is a friend I will always include in my memories of life at UT. Jose made each part of school more exciting, and allowed me to be myself while peer pressuring me into things I am glad I did. Only a few times do I regret going downtown with him and not getting enough sleep for whatever activity I had planned the next day. He has seen me at my best and worst, and everything in between.
The sunglasses I am getting rid of today, while not the actual sunglasses I have worn with Jose, instantly reminded me of him. For a few weeks last spring he wore crazy plastic sunglasses all the time, and still has more pairs of sunglasses than I do shoes (which does say a lot). We even had a few days that we wore sunglasses downtown at 11 at night just so we could wear them. And because we're cool like that.... I will miss Jose more than I know now, and more than most other people I am leaving behind in a few weeks to go to Chicago. I can't wait to see how his trip is going and hopefully catch up, just like we always have when we are apart for a long period of time. Jose, I will miss you, be safe, and wear your sunglasses at night.
Until third grade I was a horrible reader. At the end of my second grade year I was mortally embarrassed when I could not easily participate in the reading circle in class. That summer I decided it was time to learn how to read, and well. Starting small I worked my way up to books I probably only understood halfway. By sixth grade I was the top of my class...and reading Stephen King as well as Sue Grafton...again, I probably did not understand everything that was going on, but I gleamed the basic meaning. Reading became a regular pasttime for me. In my free time I would root through the stack of books in my Dad's book cases hoping to find something interesting.
Since starting reading I have devoured over 30 Stephen King books and caught up with Sue Grafton in her alphabet series. Janet Evanovich was introduced to me by my father. The mildly humorous tone of the stories and the detective theme made these similar to Sue Grafton, yet more interesting because it gave me an opportunity to delve into the mind of a new character. Stephanie Plum falls into every hole possible and dug herself out of each one while tracking down criminals who broke bail. Her inexperience and clumsiness leaves Stephanie in awkward situations. Usually at least one car explodes and a few gun gets fired in each segment of the series.
I always plan to give the books I enjoy to friends. I generally do not get to this. My friends are not interested in the books I read and often I forget them at my place. Metro Girl was not one of these. The story itself was funny but I found the characters full of cliche to an annoying degree. To make a long story short... I wouldn't have planned to share this book with friends, but I still finished reading this particular book over a month ago and kept my copy sitting on the desk since. This provides the perfect opportunity for me to donate this so it can be read and enjoyed by other readers.
Sometimes trashy novels are a great way to increase interest in reading. Any reading increases understanding of our language and is such an amazing source of entertainment at the same time.
I remember thinking that I could never put contacts in. Not only did they seem like such a grown-up thing, but also, who wants to touch their eyeball every day? Gross.
I started wearing glasses around first or second grade, I don't remember which. With my dad's insurance I could get one new pair of glasses a year so I never hesitated to do just that. I had old glasses for years even though my prescription changed every year. I remember my first glasses were round brown ones, I thought they were cute...at the time. When I moved into junior girl scouts I got turquoise colored ones, not that I was obsessed with girl scouts, that's just how I recall those glasses. Over the years the frames got smaller and more fancy. Since high school I stopped getting new frames every year and my prescription has also settled into an almost constant spot, but I still remember the days of spending an hour trying on every pair of glasses at the optometrists office.
In high school, I also realized it was time to grow up and get a pair of contacts, which meant I had to choose between contacts and frames because our insurance only covered one new one per year. I never really got used to contacts, there was too much maintenance involved with making sure I kept them clean and protected my eyes etc...etc.. Luckily I have decent vision without correction so I can get by with neither glasses nor contacts when I'm too lazy to deal with them. Still I keep a supply of contacts handy for running (sometimes...usually I just run blind, if you can't really see where you're going how can you tell how far you've run?) and going out clubbing with friends. I tried to wear contacts every day for a while and that was successful for about a year. My current job requires me to look at a computer screen the whole time, which leads to dried out lenses and I was never very good about only wearing them for ten hours a day. The end result of both of those situations is irritated eyes. I still try to wear them occasionally, but rarely for an entire day.
Last time I wore my contacts downtown I woke up the next morning with blood-shot eyes and a red ring around the iris of my eyes....not really a good sign. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a drinker and I always take the time to remove my contacts after a long night of partying. The redness in my eyes had something to do with the contacts. Most bacterial infections from contacts are because of contaminated cleaning fluid so out went that bathroom clutter. I still haven't worn contacts since (it has only been two weeke or so) but Sydney did buy me a new lens case (probably the coolest one I've had) and some new cleaning fluid. Today I throw out my old contaminated lensee and cases, cases I have way too many of, and opt to save only one case with the new cleaner. I will start with a new set of contacts when I wear them next. Hopefully the infection is not a permanent one that will require me to wear glasses instead of contacts forever....although I do like to pick out new frames, so maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing.
This weekend I helped a friend work on her condo. We put up greenwall and concrete walls in the shower that she plans to tile next weekend. I have always wanted to redo an apartment or house but have never had the chance, so of course I jumped on the opportunity this summer. While the shower is a lot of work and seems a lot harder than the bath tub her boyfriend and father were working on in the other bathroom I think the work will pay off with a gorgeous full-size shower. Sydney and I left just before the concrete was mixed to pour into the botom but next weekend we will be able to see how it ended up and get to start the finalization process. I realize now that projects always take more time then originally planned for them. Luckily, a condo that will be lived in starting in August must be finished unlike many of my own crafty projects.
Years ago I started a quilt. I always wanted to quilt, the end result is beautiful and it seems like a good way to get your mind off of what is around you. Usually when I am streesed I am too busy to take the time to work on a quilt, surprisingly, I almost finished one....but have not worked on it for over two years. Because of this, I will throw away this unfinished, poor-quality project I always intended to finish. The tree design is made up of many different prints of fall colors and the trunk of different browns. The best part was picking out thhe fabrics and slowly making a plan for how it would turn out. Each different print was picked out over a period of a month and cut into small squares that I sewed together in strips which I then sewed together and even connected the back of the quilt and started quilting...that was where my ambition failed me. I moved back to Austin where it took me a month to find a sewing machine and by then I was busy wih friends, work, and school. Too busy to sew. Collecting dust in my closet, hiding in my old suitcases, and being moved from apartment to apartment, my quilt has finally found its way back into the front of my life. This time to be removed forever. I still struggle with this idea as I know the fabric is all high quality fabric and the hours I spent sewing each piece is now wasted if I never finish the work...but I won't ever finish, only because I know I have no willpower to work on crafty projects for long enough. Goodbye dreams of being a patient quilter. Goodbye bright fall colors. Goodbye soft fabrics. And goodbye hours of work spent over a sewing machine. I wish I would complete you, but since I haven't touched you in 2 years it is time to accept that my patience wih that sort of thing will never beat my desire to be active for the hours I could spend working on crafts.
Maybe I should buy a house to redo, that combines active and crafts.
Saving things from trips has always come naturally to me. The trip to New York left me with many scraps to hold onto memories. Instead I will throw these all away and write about it. I guess the blog won't remind me of my trip as often because, unlike random tickets and brochures, my blog will not fall on my head or give me a papercut as I look in my closet for what to wear in the morning or search through my box of papers for the one important document I left in there. But my blog will have to serve as a reminder of the bright lights and exciting times I had in my short weekend to New York.
The first night my flight was delayed a few hours and I ended up spending four hours in tye Charlotte airport. When I finally arrived at the La Guardia airport I was exhausted and wanted a shower (isn't it weird that planes all smell stale but the same, it's like Target....but not buttery pretzels, stale thrice breathed air). Of course due to the delays there were difficulties getting the keys to the apartment we rented for the weekend (we went through airbnb.com I would recommend giving it a try). We were finally able to get into the building but had no time to shower before we rushed off to eat a quick meal and watch Chicago performed in the Ambassador Theater (another thing I would recommend if you ever make it out there the sound and amazing performance of "actors on Broadway were extremely impressive). Time square teemed with people as we wove in and out of groups strolling slowly staring at the stores along the way.
The next morning we slept in and started our day with an amazing tour of Chelsea Market and the meat packing district. Tasting food at the different shops along the way and learning the history of the area made New York seem more interesting every step of the way. Then off to the Museum of Modern Art, we were busy the entire time, and walking the whole time.
Central Park, Wall Street, Ground Zero, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Top of the Rock... So many attractions we saw and so many we missed but hopefully there will be another trip when I can have a new set of adventures in one of the largest cities I will probably ever visit.
So today I will acknowledge my inability to scrapbook by throwing away all my saved memorials from my impromptu trip.
Spending a few days in New York this past weekend I was able to step away from all of my things and see what life is like with the absolute minimum. Thinking about everything I left back in Austin I enjoyed my spontaneous vacation. However the short trip I took made it basically impossible for me to keep up with getting rid of things. Today I will donate a small pile of toys that I got in my Easter eggs last year. While these toys have not had the chance to build sentimental meaning for me yet, nor were they selected specifically for me, I always find it harder to give away new items. Maybe the idea that I could form a bond with them makes me want to hang onto them long enough to do so. Either way... these toys have been my reminder of Easter in Austin for a few months and here they go, off to someone who will enjoy taking them apart and playing with each little character as its own animal. Hopefully other vacations I go on I will be able to plan ahead and pack items I will donate so I can continue to update this while I'm gone.
On another note, I feel like I keep wanting to collect more things as I go along. And that I want to be a scrapbooker but have never had the creative spirit to get one finished in time. In New York after a harrowing adventure in the airport (of which you heard some of) I got to see Chicago performed by amazing actors and visit the statue of liberty and Wall street and take a food tour of the meatpacking district (amazing food everyoje should try this). Every place I visited and every activity I participated in gave me one or more things to save for the scrapbook I will never make....luckily cameras are mostly digital now so I don't have hundreds of printed pictures with nowhere to go.
I love getting gifts from people, especially when I know the person really tried to find something that I would like. Unfortunately, even if I don't love a gift I try to use it as much as possible because usually I learn to love things for the sentimental fact that they were given to me by an important person in my life or someone who cares about me. Today, the item I will donate was a gift from my boss. After a conference he came back with presents for everyone. I got a rubber worker ducky. While I never use rubber duckies, I don't even usually take baths, it was nice to be thought of. This ducky, still unnamed, sat on my desk at work for my last few months in an office full of people I love working with. While I am sad to see him go I will hope that someone will find him and give him a name he has been asking for since I got him. Naming is too much of a resposibility for me, what if it ends up being a horrible name in two years even though it seems great now? I don't know what I'll do if I ever decide to have children...
On a side note, I am making a spur of the moment weekend trip to New York (totally out of character for me) and find I am stuck in North Carolina for three hours waiting for a delayed connection. But they have the best restrooms here...No, not that they are especially clean or super private for everyone...they provide free mouthwash! In a squirty bottle on the counter with mini disposable cups next to the sinks there is Listerine mouhwash...I didn't have a chance to brush my teeth this morning after only an hour of sleep between celebrating a friend's last birthday in Austin :( and my flight. While mouthwash does not seem like the best thing in the world all the time, I am excited to be connecting here on the way home also!
Maybe I should save a souvenir mini cup so I have something to throw away tomorrow......
