My Packrat Tendencies

Um. Hi.

How are you?

So I guess we went pretty radio silent for the last ten days or so, but I promise that it's not because we don't love you. It's also not really because I have been too busy, because while starting school has been busy and crazy I would be lying if I said that I didn't have time to blog. No, I haven't posted because there really has been no news about the house even if I consider the definition of "news about the house" in a very liberal sense. Since we last wrote, I have spent the ten days teaching, preparing for teaching, driving to and from the airport, and flipping between CNN's coverage of Hurricane Katrina and DVRed episodes of Arrested Development. And while all of these things are worthy of large amounts of discussion, I discused them in other venues instead of this one.

K. was gone for awhile but now she is back. And the 20-some boxes of things she shipped from California are slowly making their way to us, via the US Postal System. We need a place to put them as they arrive, and so last night we spent quite a bit of time moving other boxes out of the enclosed patio (aka 'The Four Seasons Room') that we have been using as a staging area for the move. Most of these were boxes that went straight into the basement, as they were mostly filled with various papers and things that I/we have saved over the years because of my packrat tendencies. Some examples of the things in these boxes include:

• All of the response cards from our wedding invitation.
  
• Every issue of The New Yorker published between Febraury 2000 and July 2005.
  
• A complete set of Beverly Hills 90210 trading cards.
• My nametag from my first day of college.
  
• Programs from any number of plays and concerts, ranging from the Broadway production of Titanic to a really bad Frige Festival play based on a Kelly Link short story.
  
• Lyrics to a musical that a friend and I wrote in college about another friend's medical problems that included the couplet "Cleveland has the best symphony/Of any town, large or mini!"
  
• Not one but two Gore/Leiberman posters.
• Several decks of cards that are missing some of the cards yet have too much sentimental value to throw away.
  
• Multiple setlists to concerts by bands such as The Nields and Squirrel Nut Zippers, several of which are autographed. Oh, and lots and lots of ticket stubs.
  
• Boxes and boxes of letters written to me by various long distance friends (and yes, girlfriends) I had in high school that I met at Nerd Camps.
  

And that's just the start of my boxes. I guess it's a good thing we have so much storage space, eh?