Out with the old

So I have missed over a week, but I will still get rid of at least one thing per day! Rick came to visit over Labor Day weekend, and we were busy busy busy! I can now finally say I have seen Chicago, or a lot of the city. After six exhausting, but exciting days I explored the Sears (now Willis) Tower, Millenium Park, The Art Institute, Lincoln Park, Lincoln Park Zoo, China Town, Pilsen, and so many more places I can't even begin to remember. It was a great weekend, and I can't wait to spend more time seeing and exploring the city.

For things I am getting rid of: First, Rick brought me a bunch of mail from Austin that was received after I left, so I will shred each one of the important-to-hide documents and just throw away the rest, most of it was credit card requests, but some was from my bank. I was also sent

the last playbill that somehow stowed itself away from my last purging after New York of the mementos I would usually save from a vacation. In throwing these few new mail items away I realize that I have many more similar items saved from years past that I will need to clean out. It sounds like a good project for this

coming weekend. I now have to make room for my mom to come visit in only a few weeks, so I will need to find places to store new brochures and receipts (just kidding!).

Next I will be getting rid of a few things that I probably shouldn't even have with me in Chicago.

One is my cat's harness. First, he never liked it, and second, I left him in Austin to be taken care of by Sydney! It seems like in a move I am never quite able to not drag a random thing along

with me. Second is an old bracelet. I am pretty sure this was one of the items we put in a time capsule freshman year of high school to be taken out in our senior year. The bracelet was from Sydney, and it has some note about friendship on it. I also never wore it, and I think it's too small for me anyway, but that doesn't ever stop me from keeping it!

Next: a pack of cards, these actually have drinks recipes on them. Unfortunately, even with all of the drinking and drink jokes, recipes, pictures, posts, news going on around me, I never picked up drinking. I enjoy a margarita every once in a while, or a good apple-tini, but the culture never drew me in enough to need to go through 52 drinks and try them all. One day I do still want to have a mostly full bar in

my house though. Sometimes I just want to try something and don't know where to start buying the ingredients. I also never play cards so cards themselves are pretty useless. Again, out with the old habits and in with new, cleaner shelves.

I love ballroom dancing. The idea of knowing what step is next and being able to make a beautiful dance out of any music has always intrigued me. When a friend of mine went to Argentina she came back with a picture of a couple doing the tango for me. While I loved the picture and had it hanging in my room for over a year, it is time to move on. I made a new map for my wall with the land in white and the oceans in blue and I am prepared for a new theme in my room. This picture will hopefully serve someone well as inspiration to learn to dance, or keep dancing, or possibly even just to get a little music in their lives.

And finally, I am getting rid of an old makeup bag. My mom gets free stuff from places all the time, and I tend to be on the receiving end of the makeup she gets for free.

This bag came with some lipstick, or eyeshadow as a promotional item with one of her lotions, and I used it for a while with my makeup. Surprisingly, even though I never buy makeup, I have outgrown this bag.... I guess the people who give me makeup think I am ugly enough to deserve more! Or perhaps my mom is ordering too much lotion... Either way, I will have to find a new, bigger, and hopefully cuter, makeup bag for what I do have now, even though I rarely wear makeup to begin with.

The confusion of this post is pretty much how I felt about my week this week. Is anyone else surprised it is already Thursday?! Somehow I missed out on a few days, with the holiday and so many things I needed to get done I didn't realize time was going by so quickly.