Day To Day

29 More Days

Time is just flying by. I am now only 29 days away from moving to Florida. Whew! I will be glad when it is over and I can relax for a minute.

Day To Day

More Purging

I am in the process of moving to Florida, and for the first time, I cannot take everything I have collected up to this day. Those that have known me for a long time know that I tend to hang on to a lot of stuff and as years go by my collections have grown. I remember when I was able to move across the country with all of my possessions fitting in my car. Now that is hard for me to even imagine….


Now I am purging so much of it because I am faced with a move that is more costly than I want or can afford to spend if I move all of this stuff. I started to purge back in October when I was selling my house, but I was more focused on just throwing everything in boxes so that I could paint the walls and get the place sold (whew! that was a crazy month). I had a garage sale and gave so much stuff away…most of it was the many pieces of thrift store and side-of-the-road furniture I have collected and old toys of my kids.


Now, for the past few weeks, I have been consumed with an overwhelming urge to purge. I can save a decent amount of money if I can fit all of my stuff into a smaller space for moving. Since I just bought a house in Florida and am moving across country, I need to reduce expenses wherever possible. So I started clearing out stuff that I no longer needed. In the process, I have touched just about everything I own. I have opened every box. I have sorted and reboxed. I am organizing everything. Similar things are all together in the same box and each is labeled. I have accumulated many many empty boxes on the patio in the process. Things I no longer need are thrown away or given to GoodWill or whatever. There have been tears from time to time as I go through each time capsule that I find. So many boxes of memories that would not be considered memories to anyone else…it is all just stuff…but to me, it signifies that moment in time…and touching it all over the past few weeks has kind of seemed like seeing my life flash before my eyes so to speak.

Sometimes I am surprised by the things I have saved over the years. So very many things have had sentimental value to me…I have always seemed to be afraid that I will not remember every single little detail of my life…always thinking that I need to keep all of these symbols and icons of every moment. And now I have been on a crazy spree for the past few weeks getting rid of so many pieces of junk that I just do not need to keep.


I love this urge to purge that I have become consumed with lately..it is refreshing and relieving to watch myself get organized and make choices about what to keep and to have time to be organized about it while I count the days to when my boys get out of school for the summer and we hit the road to Florida. But that is still 32 days away and it is so nice to be really getting organized and efficiently packed. And I will tell you something else…I am a pro at packing and moving my stuff now that I have done it so many times in the last 7 months.


I feel pretty good about where my life is heading…I have almost forgotten why I ended up in the desert in the first place…

Theme Songs

Run, Baby, Run – Sheryl Crow

What I learned from my father….

She was born in November 1963
The day Aldous Huxley died
And her mama believed
That every man could be free
So her mama got high, high, high
And her daddy marched on Birmingham
Singing mighty protest songs
And he pictured all the places
That he knew that she belonged
But he failed and taught her young
The only thing she’s need to carry on
He taught her how to

Run baby run baby run baby run
Baby run

Past the arms of the familiar
And their talk of better days
To the comfort of the strangers
Slipping out before they say
so long
Baby loves to run

She counts out all her money
In the taxi on the way to meet her plane
Stares hopeful out the window
At the workers fighting
Through the pouring rain
She’s searching through the stations
For an unfamiliar song
And she’s pictures all the places
Where she knows she still belongs
And she smiles the secret smile
Because she knows exactly how
To carry on

So run baby run baby run baby run
Baby run

From the old familiar faces and
Their old familiar ways
To the comfort of the strangers
Slipping out before they say
So long
Baby loves to run

Family

Mom Is Coming

Well, it is now official… I bought my Mom a one-way plane ticket and made reservations with the moving company…I also sent the rest of my down payment to the title company for my house…Mom is going to fly out here May 25th and I am headed to Florida May 26th. Not too much longer…

Ponderings

Happy Friday The 13th!!

It is Friday the 13th. I wonder if I should do something freaky.

17 years ago on this day, February 13th also fell on a Friday. I remember because I still have the calendar page that I ripped off the wall from Dukes Italian Beef where I worked at the time. I stopped up there to get my final check. It was late at night, and Dukes was about to close, so I ripped the calendar page off the wall. It was one of those calendars where every day is a separate page. Each one had a big red number on it for the day. This particular one had a big red 13. I still have it packed in my box of memories. I thought I would always want to remember the day that I left my home to go live with my father. I was 16 years old. I was a rebel going to live with a father I barely knew and leaving behind all of the friends and family that I had known for 16 years. At the moment that I tore that calendar sheet off of the wall, I was full of excitement for the adventure I was about to enter with my father. Unfortunately it was all a mirage and I have been lost in the desert ever since. But fortunately now, 17 years later, I am finding my way out of the desert and heading home.



Happy Friday the 13th!!!

Day To Day

Dark Cold Winter

You know I always get a little slow this time of year because of the shortened days. It is often still dark in the morning when I wake up and it is dark when I am making dinner at night. I cannot imagine what life would be like if I lived in a place like Iceland where it is dark for 22 hours at a time and such. It seems like it would be difficult not to hibernate.

Family

Junior Achievement Exchange City

Today my son and the three fifth grade classes at his school were able to take part in the Junior Achievement Exchange City. I was one of the 14 parent volunteers who was able to be part of it all. This is coolest thing. For the past six weeks, the fifth grade classes at my son’s school have been learning about running a business, profit and loss, writing checks, balancing ledgers, etc. In Tempe, there is a fully simulated city sponsored by many businesses here in the phoenix area such as Motorola, Bank of America, etc. This city has a bank, city hall, radio station, newspaper, and many shops. Each shop was ran by students. Each shop has a computer which the student accountant uses to print checks, manage bills and income, etc. Each shop has an owner. The owner is responsible for going to the bank to take a business loan to run his/her business, manage the employees, etc. Each shop has student employees who produce goods and services in order for the shop to have income. Each student citizen receives paychecks which he/she must deposit at the bank and then go around the town to purchase goods and services from all the shops with their checkbook. There is a post office where student postal employees must deliver and receive all of the mail in the town. There are student police officers who issue tickets to any student citizen who breaks the defined set of laws such as no walking on the grass, etc. If a student citizen receives a ticket, he/she must go to city hall to appear in court and pay a fine. It was such a great experience for the kids. What a great way to introduce these kids to a little bit of the real world. The city is amazing. It is set up with computers, realistic store fronts, and even Tempe Town Lake. Each of the students were chosen ahead of time for each of their roles. There was a head banker who approved the loans that each of the business owners applied for to run their businesses, the computers were all networked together and students were required to write checks for all of their purchases throughout the town. There were check verification machines to determine if the presented check was good for the amount written. There was a student who was the town mayor and a judge. Each shop created a logo which they each had to bring to the sign shop where my son was working. He was the sign shop sign maker (since he is such a good artist). The goal of for each shop owner was to make enough income from the sale of goods and services in order to pay back the business loan. As income came in, it was applied to the loan. Once the loan is paid back, the shop begins to realize a profit. It was such an awesome experience for these kids and I was very excited that I was chosen to be part of it all.