Wow. I can’t believe it’s been 6 months since I wrote! What happened?!!

I won’t beat myself up about it. Life happened.

Life is what happens while you’re making other plans.

There’s been lots and lots and i will soon write about it, I’m sure.

In the meantime, it’s interesting that as I have been clearing out and organizing my basement storage area in anticipation of my daughter (who lives with me with her 3 and 8-year-old) closing on her new home on Friday (11/21/14) and moving out the next day, I have come across items that have taught, or reminded me, of things I’d forgotten about myself.

For instance, I have learned that I am nothing if not consistent.

Bags – When I travel, I buy practical things . I don’t like cluttery mementoes. I’d rather have something I can use in my everyday life to give me a pleasant little reminder of my travels. I have come across bags I bought in every country I have visited. Just seeing the bags, alone, was a trip down memory lane! Aruba, Costa Rica, Kenya, Ghana, a Carnival Cruise, Disneyworld, New Zealand, Oxford, Australia, Alaska. There were over 30. I needed a storage tub just for bags! And I haven’t carried an actual purse for years! These aren’t purses (except a couple). They are carrying bags. I only use them to hold my knitting when I travel. But they are there. Lots of them are there.

Tissues – They were present in nearly every bag! I always need tissues. I read recently that premature babies often have respiratory issues during their lifetime. I know if that is true now, it was probably certainly true 63 years ago when I was born and the doctors told my parents not to count on me living. Maybe that’s why I can rarely be far from a tissue.

ChapStik – Yep, that was there too in the bags I carried. I hate not having the things I know life and experience tells me I will need. I always carry tissues, ChapStick and nail files. Don’t you hate needing a nail file and not having one? It is SO annoying! So, I do.

All this, and I haven’t carried a bag, as in purse, in at least two years. All I carry is a small credit-card-sized woven pouch that I bought in Costa Rica. Best investment I can think of having made in a while. It carries my money, credit cards, a tissue, half an emery board, my drivers’ license, car registration and insurance. And I carry it right in my bra. Ooop! Should I not have told you that?! My bad! 🙂

I also found date books and calendars going back to 1976 when I worked at the White House Domestic Council. Can you imagine?! And there is one for virtually every single year! What a find! Just the lunch dates alone are a gold mine! Of course, since it was 38 years ago, I don’t know who half the names are, but there are great familiar ones—people I haven’t thought about in eons. It’s like looking at another whole life.

There is the storage tub filled with photos. Thank heaven I had the presence of mind to know this day was coming and I dated them and gave names and ages and places. When my last paternal family member died, my Dad’s brother, I ended up with a trunk full of my Grandma’s photos of people about whom I was clueless. I mean I knew maybe 2 people out of hundreds of photos. I swore then and there that I would never do that to anyone. As painstaking and time-consuming as it was, back before digital photos, I religiously wrote all the identifying information on the back of each photo. It did not matter that the info was on one and there were obviously similar ones. They could get separated, so each had to have its own information. Thank heaven digital at least gives me a time and place. I still want ages there because that’s the sort of info you want to know when you look at a photo.”Oh, you were so cute! How old were you in this picture?!” It came in handy when my 8-year-old granddaughter was with me, looking at things as I sorted them, and she could see for herself how old her Mom and aunties were by just turning the photo over. Neat!

Fabric/yarn/wool for hand spinning – I still have fabric from dresses I made for my girls 30 or more years ago. That will come in handy, as I also see that some of the early quilts I made for each of my three daughters (now 36, 34 and 27) need patching and I have the original fabric I used. I noticed that for the most part, I chose fabrics that I still love today, 30+ years later. Amazing how consistent I am. I also notice I like blue and white bedrooms. Nearly 40 years later, it is still my favorite color scheme. In fact, I was having the bathroom attached to my bedroom redecorated as I was going through this and the color I had just picked out was the same blue. I’m not in a rut. it is just the color that best soothes and calms me. The color I can best live with. I love lots of other colors, but I guess there’s just no fighting it: this is my live-with color.

Advent calendars – There is a storage tub of nothing but our advent calendars over a 30+-year period. The girls still get one every year (which reminds me that I need to order them for our December 1st festivities next week!–we’re having them a bit early since everyone will be here for Thanksgiving). I love being able to see them. They don’t mean anything to anyone else, but I love seeing them and they don’t take up much space. They can throw them away after I die. Somebody tossed a couple a few weeks ago. Luckily, I found them and saved them. 🙂

Clothes – I don’t think of myself as caring about clothes, pretty much at all. Turns out, I guess I do. I found some. In fact, I found lots of them. Lots. Three tubs of African clothing, alone. And lots more. Some of which I just washed and re-discovered for wearing. Neat! Timeless (my daughter says they aren’t… 🙂 )

And that’s just the beginning. But, I have to go now. Maybe that’s why I haven’t written since May. I forgot how time-consuming it is! 🙂