I was going through yet another box this evening in my unpacking mode, and I came across two of my “memory” boxes, with stuff from when I was growing up. Things like my pin collection, school photos, the rulers the school gave us in elementary school that we would then draw all over. Just hilarious. I even found my old scrapbooks, my Olympic scrapbook, my music scrapbook and my all-time favourite: my Steffi Graf scrapbook. My friend Patrick and I had a contest going in high school, to see who had the biggest fan shrine in their bedroom. Mine was to Steffi, Patrick’s was to his girlfriend (my apologies to his wife), Debbie Gibson! By Grade 13 it turns out that Patrick won, but not that much.

Anyways, I ended up taking mine down and pasting all the photos and articles n’ such into a scrapbook, and that’s what I found tonight. I had a good chuckle as I flipped through it. I found the acceptance letter I received from Queens in 1992, the program from my high school graduation, and even the program from an ice skating show I went to featuring Torvill & Dean! I was having too much fun going through the box tonight, but the upshot of all the sorting was that I was able to consolidate two boxes into one. Very nice. I’ve still got a few more boxes to go through, and as I’m coming down to crunch time for Sunday (that’s when I’m having my housewarming party), I may just have to start using them all as seating! I just realized tonight I don’t have that much seating around here, and of course I have no money to buy any, but besides that, I don’t want to actually buy anything in haste, you know? So I guess I’ll have to figure out something by Sunday.

Yes, that’s right, only 6 days left till I move to the new pad, and I’m excited! Of course that means I’ve gotta finish packing up here, and let me tell you, I sure am sick of packing. I’m down to the odds and ends, so it’s a little difficult to sort through. Tonight I’m going to pile up all the boxes in one area, and pile the stuff still to pack in another and see what’s left. But the end is in sight! Yippie.

My morning so far consisted of getting out of bed, having breakfast, changing into some grubby clothes, and then:

1. Separated out the laundry.
2. Put one load in to wash.
3. Started sorting through the clothes in my closet in anticipation of moving.
4. Pulled out more boxes of clothes from the storage space.
5. Filled up two garbage bags worth of clothes to donate.
6. Consolidated and rearranged how I stored my clothes in the boxes.
7. Put the first load of laundry in the dryer.
8. Started the second load of laundry in the washer.

And that was all done in 90 minutes. Whoa, I am a little peckish now, after all that work! Good thing it’s almost lunch time, so that I can refuel and keep going. Hmm, what shall I do this afternoon? I’m at least going to put the clothes to donate into the truck, that way if I see one of those boxes in my travels this week, I can pitch them in. I typically go thru my clothes every spring and fall, or at least I’ve been making an effort to do that over the last 3 or 4 years, so I’ve been able to pare down my closet significantly. Too bad I can’t seem to do that with the rest of my stuff! Oh well, at least I’m doing it now.

Okay, so it wasn’t the photos themselves that took me back, but rather their content: my beloved old, used audio cassettes! You remember them, we used them before CDs and mp3s. In preparation for my move, I’m starting to go through my stuff and purging the unwanted, as there’s no sense in bringing along stuff that’s not needed. At any rate, I had a blast going through these boxes (there were 2). I salvaged all the mixed tapes I made (I was a big fan of the mixed tape, mostly for me, but I had ‘mood’ ones that I’d pull out depending on what mood I was in.) You know those days where you were sad because the boy (or girl) you liked didn’t talk to you in between classes? You’d pull out the good old boot tape. On those days where things were going well, you might pull out the dance tape, or the rock tape.

You’ll see by the pictures that my tastes were a-l-l over the place, and they still are, which I like. That means I’m never bored of my collection, and there’s always something interesting to listen to. One day I’m sure I’ll get rid of the mixed tapes too, but for now, I’ll keep them safe, as they’re still filled with lots of memories, you know? Although I did salvage a few of my retail tapes too, like the very first one I ever bought (Platinum Blonde’s Alien Shores — great album!), and a few of my foreign language ones I haven’t yet replaced in CD. And I even rescued one particular one that I have to send to a friend as a joke, because it’s just too funny (I can’t tell you what it is just now, because he reads this blog too, and I don’t want him to see what it is before he gets it in the mail! I’ll edit the post after he gets it so you can get in on the joke too.)

Definitely a nice way to spend part of the evening, reminiscing and having fun.