Pitching anxiety

I am a collector. My parents are collectors. And we attach sentimental value to everything that touches our lives.

Proof of this hoarding habit became all too apparent when I decided to start cleaning out the attic.

I had major anxiety. Still do.

10 tall kitchen garbage bags worth of clothes are waiting in the garage to be donated to Joseph's Coat in St. Paul.

5 bags of garbage are piled in the garage to go out on Tuesday.

And I have been using a paper bag to keep my breathing steady.

Why so much anxiety?

I think part of it is that all those little mementos remind me of my life. They let me know that I have lived. That I have been places and done things. That other lives intersected with mine and we shared something together.

Some of the things that I found:

8 track tapes of the Flashdance soundtrack, Air Supply, Kenny Rogers, The Turtles.
A Rubik's cube with scenes from the movie ET
Empire Strikes Back trading cards
ET trading cards
A stuffed Gizmo
Peace Frogs t-shirts and bumper stickers
The napkin from Patrick's something or other in New Orleans
Subway token from my 1988 trip to New York for college
Bullet casing from when I learned to fire a rifle at the range
Richard Scary books I had when I was a little girl
A raggedy Anne doll that looked more Raggedy than Anne
My Brownie guidebook and badge book
The medals I earned from the Reading Olympics
My old wedding ring
A Chevron collectible car
Beanie Baby happy meal toys
Darth Vader case for Star Wars figures
Dagoba play set
A gun for one of the Star Wars figures.
An R2D2 and C3PO necklace
The sign for my high school locker that said "Tater Tot"
A Doll with a stuffed body and hard plastic head
The sweatshirt I colored on the drive from California to Michigan 1977 which lists each state we drove through and a pictorial representation of that state.
Keychains
My sticker collection
A unicorn pillow
The bandanna a roommate brought back from Japan Disney
The jade horse my dad got me when he was in Spain
The bells we put on our shoes to greet my dad at the airport

I didn't throw it all out. I couldn't. Ok, the 8-tracks went into the garbage. As did some of the above stuff.

I also collected a bunch of stuff to take up to the cabin. Kitchen things we can use up there.
Mugs, bowls, measuring cups, etc........

I don't need to have the stuff. I don't use so much of it. But I am not ready to part with it all either.

It is silly. They are just things.

Ultimately I know the only things in my life that really matter are my pets, my husband, and our health.

And I really could walk away from it all. But to make the permanent break when I don't have to I am just not read for.

One of these days it will happen. A little at a time. Maybe a year from now I'll do the same thing and chuck even more.

It really does feel good to get rid of things I will never use/wear/read.

Baby steps.....................

Happy Winter Solstice

Hey there everybody.




December 21st is my absolute favorite day of the year. Why you ask? Why does Newt go out and dance around a bonfire and worship mother nature?



Cause from then on out the days get longer. The sun shines just a little bit longer and hope springs eternal.



In honor of it being lazy winter days. And even more importantly, in honor of the ASPCA and all the wonderful things it does I have decided to start another walk-a-thon. Yep, that's right.



Allow me to introduce to you "Paws of Promise"



Much like with MS and Feets of Fancy this summer I will walk and walk and walk all season long.



I realize that the purse strings are tight for everyone so if you can't donate money contact your local shelter and see what supplies they need. Even old blankets and towels are helpful donations for a shelter. Or pick up a few things for dogs/cats at the dollar spot at Target. Leashes and collars and toys are always needed. They also need volunteers. I don't know of a shelter that doesn't need folks to come over and walk a few dogs.



But if you can donate, now through the end of the year there is a challenge grant and every dollar donated gets doubled. How cool is that????



I will update weekly on progress. I will not be tracking donations as I just put a direct link to the ASPCA on the site so that they can get credit for the challenge grant.

If you want to comment and leave what you did that would be awesome. I'll post the list on the blog page. My goal is to have things like: Donated cash, donated time, donated collars, donated blankets on the sidebar.

Thanks everyone! Happy Winter Solstice. Spring is just around the corner!

Best of 2008 - oops I totally forgot

I totally forgot this when I did my 2008 best of.

Best Album in 2008

It's a tie, I can't pick between them:

One Republic

From Newt's Muse

Mat Kearney

From Newt's Muse

Not much else for a Monday. I am working from home today. Today's windchill is minus 30. Yes, that's right! MINUS 30. The actual air temp might get up to 0 today. Oh happy joy joy.

Over the weekend I baked sugar cookies. When I was a kid my mom made batches every year for the neighbors as a holiday gift.

We only got to eat the burned or broken ones.

I made a few cookie sheets worth that were nice and golden brown. They didn't taste right so I burned the next batch. Ahhh, that's more like it.

Hubster came in to the kitchen "Uh, forgot to set the timer hon?"

I replied with "Nope, just used to them that way"

he didn't get it.

Anyone else only get to eat the burned and broken cookies?

No swearing and no one died.................

So, along with a relationship/marriage comes the art of dealing with difficult situations. If any of you are like hubster and I we tend to get a little cranky at each other while trying to complete big projects, heavy lifting, etc.

Problem solving tends to be done with a little snapping and snarling.

I was amazed at how well we managed to deal with getting the couch into the living room.

First we had to take the topper off the truck. This thing is heavy. Too heavy. And it gets heavier the older we get.

It's probably upwards of 18o pounds. And big and awkward to try to maneuver. And even though we have a pretty good system to remove it from the truck I still managed to hurt myself. I still don't know how I did it but the topper started to tilt and I think it took part of the palm of my hand with it while the rest of my hand remained upright. Basically my thumb and wrist went completely numb. Which made it interesting to try to get the thing down on the ground. Somehow though we managed.

We ran a few errands including stopping at Trader Joes for some fresh bread and wine. Their 3 buck chuck now is available in White Zin. Pretty good too. Most excellent with cheese and crackers.

Ok, so we got the couch without a hitch. A nice gentleman helped us load it in the truck.

We pull up to the curb, the hubster had already removed the door stopper/slider thingy from the screen. We bunjee'd the storm door open and we were set to move the couch. Damn, it looked awfully big for our tiny doorway. And it was wrapped in all sorts of protective stuff. Wrapped so well you really couldn't hold on to anything. So we basically carried the couch by the plastic. Wad some up in our fists and lug it to the door.

Which of course it wouldn't fit through. Ok, back up a bit and take off the couch legs. No problem. Then we get it 2/3 of the way in but it got wedged because of all the cardboard protection on the one side (this end up). No biggie, hubster goes out the back door and comes around the front. I go around to the back door and appear inside the front door. Push, shove, push, shove, angle, tilt, push, shove and whoosh, the couch is in the living room. Hurray!

We remove all the packaging, put the legs back on and there you have it, a nice couch. Lay the blankets on it. I sit down and up comes Sophie, Lily and Caleb. Yes, Caleb had his little front paws on my knee and he wanted pets. (that is the true reason we got a couch - Caleb is braver on a couch).

Ok, so we take all the packaging material and bring it out to the garage for Tuesday's garbage. Then, sigh.........we have to put the topper back on.

My hand has recovered somewhat. I now have minimal feeling back in my whole hand. But there is a nice dark bruised area.

Getting the topper on is actually easier than getting it off. I was able to keep the majority of my share of the weight on my good hand. When the hubster needed me to lift higher I ended up having to use my shoulder because my hand just couldn't do it. But, we got it up and on.

A few advils and some ice and all was mended shortly there after.

Today it hurts like the dickens but I can make a fist and there is strength back in my hand.

So no biggie. And we never once swore or yelled at one another.

After this last incident though hubster has decided he is going to put up a pully system in the garage so we can raise and lower the topper easier. Without so much reliance on our own strength.

Best of 2008

The best of 2008 according to Newt:

Best Book: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Best Movie: P.S. I Love You












Best WWC Photos:
Or should I say My favorites:
I couldn't pick just one.
Bright:

From Newt's Muse

Espieglerie

From Newt's Muse

Peek

From WWC Dirty and Peek-a-boo

a-Boo

From WWC Dirty and Peek-a-boo

Best new thing in my life for 2008:

From Newt's Place

From Newt's Place

Though I should say that having my job still at the end of 2008 is pretty incredible as well given the current economy.

Most exciting thing to happen to me in 2008:

MEETING TINK!

Best new food discovery for 2008:

Trader Joes frozen dinner: Gnocchi with Gorgonzola cheese

Best TV show in 2008: Primeval

From Newt's Muse

Favorite shoes for 2008:

From Newt's Muse

The older I get

The older I get:

The less patient I have become with the younger generations.
The less time I can take to wait to pee
The more set I have become on what I like and dislike
The more willing I am to try new things
I watch less television
The more I read
The more I cherish time with family
The more I cherish the peace and quiet in just petting my dog
The more I look forward to retirement
The fact that I am even thinking about retirement
The more I wish I had invested in my 401k's at a younger age
The more seriously I would have taken school
The more I am thankful for how my parents raised me
The more my parents become my friend
The more my parents friends become people I want to spend time with
The younger 20 somethings start to look
The more I appreciate a nice glass of wine
The more important comfort becomes when picking clothing
The less I worry about what other people think
The less time I spend worrying about how clean my house is
The more time I spend just being with the hubster
The louder the music seems
The dumber the young people of this world seem to be
Or is that just more innocent?
Or inexperienced?
The more I look for timelessness vs. trendy
The more I appreciate the arts

WWC stuff, and one of my weirdest dreams yet

Mature

sending out Christmas cards

Immature

or young at heart
Mature

Immature

Reason to love living in Minnesota #5: Life here is like living in our own little snow globe.

I can't take credit for that one. One of the hosts on NPR said that last night and I loved it.

Naughty Monkey of the day:

Newt on Entertainment:

We finally got to see Iron Man - not bad. I enjoyed it. But I think my expectations were too high. Downey did a great job. I love his screen presence.

We also are about half way through Hellboy 2. We LOVED the first one. We have it on DVD and we watch it somewhat regularly. But 2 so far is a big disappointment. It's as if the actors were so uninspired by this film that they just went through the motions and didn't care. Maybe the second half is better???

Random Newt:

Last night I had a dream that I was at a work event. It was a dinner and concert and other things. Anywhoodle, one of my co-workers, who looked like a cross between Keith Richards and Steven Tyler had really cool tattoos and was a ghost (go figure on that little addition). And he could change the tattoos at will. (I guess it pays to be a ghost). I kept naming off things and he would change his tattoos to match. I told him Hello Kitty and he changed his tattoos to be a giant claw with scratches all down his chest. I guess he went "Bad Ass" Hello Kitty. He also did this naked.

So, anyone want to analyze THAT one? Cause I woke up thinking I might need some couch time with a shrink.