I feel like I should mention that over the past month I've actually started to have nightmares about the Stuff Stand-off. It's not like you think - I'm not missing the shopping or anything. Oh no, my nightmares are that the Stand-off is over. Every time in the dream it's the end of the year, but we are exactly where we are financially right at this moment.
Part of what has been so great about this Stand-off is how much money we've saved, and we've really started to get into it. We've got some high hopes for how the rest of the year will pan out, and how much more money we might continue to save. So in my dream I'm all freaked out that we lost this great opportunity, and somehow we got to the end of the year without paying off some of the debt we'd hoped to pay off, and without saving the money we had hoped to save.
What I think is hysterical about this dream is the underlying assumption in my subconscious that as soon as January 1, 2011 hits I will start spending like a maniac. I had to wake up and remind my conscious self that just because the Stand-off will be over, I do NOT have to go back to spending like I did before it started. There's a novel idea: we can actually continue to be more careful and thoughtful about what we buy.
Maybe my subconscious will listen to my conscious self and I'll stop having those dreams. We'll see. In the meantime, I'm going to keep getting used to the idea that while our intentional year off will eventually end, there's a few lessons I might actually want to take with me when it's over!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Confession time?
There's just a few things that have come up over the last month that definitely toe the line of "cheating" as far as this little Stand-off is concerned, so in the spirit of full disclosure I want to go ahead and let you know about the items in question. Then, even if I've cheated, at least I haven't withheld information.
First: FLUXX
Fluxx is a card game that Jonathan and I were introduced to when we were out in Oregon for my friend Bingham's wedding. It's a wild card game, where the rules of the game and the object of the game are always in flux. It's incredibly fun and interesting, and unlike any other game we've played. We looked for the game before we left Oregon (this was the end of December) but couldn't find it, so we left promising ourselves that we'd order the game on line when we got home.
Well, obviously that didn't happen. We stopped buying things instead. But we don't know anyone who owns this game around here, and we've been desperate to play it. When my sister Kate and I saw each other last month, I saw Fluxx popping out of her bag. Pining for it, I picked it up and said to her, "don't you think you should give me this game so that Jon and I can have it, then you and Bill can buy Zombie Fluxx when you get back to Oregon?" I was playing with her... kind of. But I secretly hoped she would agree. She laughed and said she could do that, but then we lost track of the conversation and headed to the airport.
It wasn't until I had said goodbye to her and was standing at my gate in the airport that I looked down and saw Fluxx poking out of my purse now. My smart sister had slid it into my bag when I wasn't paying attention. (Oh, who are we kidding - I was probably in the bathroom.) Because she did it that way, there was no opportunity for me to have a guilt attack and say "No, no - we'll just wait until 2011." Would I have said that? I don't know. I think so. But lucky for me, there wasn't an opportunity. And now Jonathan and I carry the game around everywhere playing it at every available opportunity. We will get rid of something in the house in exchange, but I think is still a gray area. That said - we aren't giving it back. We freaking love this game.
Second: MULCH
After much hemming and hawing, we decided that we needed to buy mulch for the beautiful garden that we planted next year. It sure felt like we were buying something... but does dirt count as "stuff"? And ultimately, that purchase never even made it into the house. We just weren't sure how this one came down with the rules, but at the end of the day, we wanted to protect the investment we made out there last year. So there you have it. My garden is mulched.
Third: THE SWIFFER
One of the things I was most wanting to buy when we started the Stand-off was a Swiffer. We recently put in bamboo floors in our kitchen, and while they are extremely beautiful floors, they also show every speck of dirt that is on them. It drives me completely crazy. But we decided that we owned a mop, and a Swiffer wasn't a neccessity, so we'd wait until next year.
But then Jon's boss had a Swiffer wet jet that wasn't working properly, so he and his wife bought a new one. He told Jonathan we could take the old one, and I came home from work one day to find the thing in our front hall closet. Now we do have a rule about taking something from a friend second-hand, but the first part of that rule is that we have to really need said item, which is where this issue gets stickier. In fairness to me, I did pull out the mop to use it the other day and was disgusted to see that it was actually really dirty and probably in need of replacement. And I have been washing my kitchen floor on my hands and knees with paper towels and 409. So we sort of needed the Swiffer. But in order to use the thing we had to buy the pads that go with it. If we'd already owned the Swiffer, purchase of the pads would have fallen under the rule about replacing household things that we use. But as it stands, we did not own the Swiffer, and the purchase of the pads becomes and extra thing: more "stuff", if you will.
I tried to stay strong in Wal-mart last week, and when I was grocery shopping did not go down the mop aisle. But then, there I was, standing by the meat section and I looked to my right... the pads were RIGHT THERE NEXT TO ME. I caved. I caved bad. And then I came home and isntantly slapped one of those pads on the bottom of that Swiffer and went to work. I'll tell you what... I might have been cheating - but it was glorious.
So there you have it. Those were the three issues in question. I hope you don't think I'm a total failure at my own Stand-off. I've otherwise stayed very strong. But I can't guarantee that there won't be a couple of other things like this that come up. When they do though, you can be sure I'll tell you about it!
First: FLUXX
Fluxx is a card game that Jonathan and I were introduced to when we were out in Oregon for my friend Bingham's wedding. It's a wild card game, where the rules of the game and the object of the game are always in flux. It's incredibly fun and interesting, and unlike any other game we've played. We looked for the game before we left Oregon (this was the end of December) but couldn't find it, so we left promising ourselves that we'd order the game on line when we got home.
Well, obviously that didn't happen. We stopped buying things instead. But we don't know anyone who owns this game around here, and we've been desperate to play it. When my sister Kate and I saw each other last month, I saw Fluxx popping out of her bag. Pining for it, I picked it up and said to her, "don't you think you should give me this game so that Jon and I can have it, then you and Bill can buy Zombie Fluxx when you get back to Oregon?" I was playing with her... kind of. But I secretly hoped she would agree. She laughed and said she could do that, but then we lost track of the conversation and headed to the airport.
It wasn't until I had said goodbye to her and was standing at my gate in the airport that I looked down and saw Fluxx poking out of my purse now. My smart sister had slid it into my bag when I wasn't paying attention. (Oh, who are we kidding - I was probably in the bathroom.) Because she did it that way, there was no opportunity for me to have a guilt attack and say "No, no - we'll just wait until 2011." Would I have said that? I don't know. I think so. But lucky for me, there wasn't an opportunity. And now Jonathan and I carry the game around everywhere playing it at every available opportunity. We will get rid of something in the house in exchange, but I think is still a gray area. That said - we aren't giving it back. We freaking love this game.
Second: MULCH
After much hemming and hawing, we decided that we needed to buy mulch for the beautiful garden that we planted next year. It sure felt like we were buying something... but does dirt count as "stuff"? And ultimately, that purchase never even made it into the house. We just weren't sure how this one came down with the rules, but at the end of the day, we wanted to protect the investment we made out there last year. So there you have it. My garden is mulched.
Third: THE SWIFFER
One of the things I was most wanting to buy when we started the Stand-off was a Swiffer. We recently put in bamboo floors in our kitchen, and while they are extremely beautiful floors, they also show every speck of dirt that is on them. It drives me completely crazy. But we decided that we owned a mop, and a Swiffer wasn't a neccessity, so we'd wait until next year.
But then Jon's boss had a Swiffer wet jet that wasn't working properly, so he and his wife bought a new one. He told Jonathan we could take the old one, and I came home from work one day to find the thing in our front hall closet. Now we do have a rule about taking something from a friend second-hand, but the first part of that rule is that we have to really need said item, which is where this issue gets stickier. In fairness to me, I did pull out the mop to use it the other day and was disgusted to see that it was actually really dirty and probably in need of replacement. And I have been washing my kitchen floor on my hands and knees with paper towels and 409. So we sort of needed the Swiffer. But in order to use the thing we had to buy the pads that go with it. If we'd already owned the Swiffer, purchase of the pads would have fallen under the rule about replacing household things that we use. But as it stands, we did not own the Swiffer, and the purchase of the pads becomes and extra thing: more "stuff", if you will.
I tried to stay strong in Wal-mart last week, and when I was grocery shopping did not go down the mop aisle. But then, there I was, standing by the meat section and I looked to my right... the pads were RIGHT THERE NEXT TO ME. I caved. I caved bad. And then I came home and isntantly slapped one of those pads on the bottom of that Swiffer and went to work. I'll tell you what... I might have been cheating - but it was glorious.
So there you have it. Those were the three issues in question. I hope you don't think I'm a total failure at my own Stand-off. I've otherwise stayed very strong. But I can't guarantee that there won't be a couple of other things like this that come up. When they do though, you can be sure I'll tell you about it!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Missing my Crocs
This story actually begins back in January, on an uncharacteristically cold night for North Carolina, when Jonathan and I were driving home from the airport after a family vacation on the Oregon coast. Our flight didn't get in until midnight, and at that time I'm pretty sure they've only got one guy loading and unloading luggage, so it took us forever to get out of the airport. By the time we were getting close to home it was 1:30 in the morning - way past our normal bedtime. We were driving along chatting about nothing to pass the time when all of a sudden a young woman came flying out of the darkness towards the highway, flailing her arms and screaming for help. Jumping in our seats from the near heart attack it gave us, we took a second to get our breath back and pulled over to see what was wrong.
I know, I know, we were stupid to pull over, and we're lucky nothing happened to us. I tend to be entirely too trusting. On this particular night no harm came from my naivete, but I'll try to be more careful in the future. Anyway, the young woman on the side of the road had been in a friend's car with her boyfriend when an argument broke out, and the friend's solution to their argument had been to slow down on the side of the highway and push this girl out of the car with no shoes and no jacket. It was 24 degrees outside.
The very abbreviated version of this story is that we put the young lady in our car, and after some other adventures, she ended up spending the night in our guest room, as the keys to her apartment were still in the friend's car. Drugs and alcohol were certainly a factor in her evening, so the whole thing was pretty manic, but even despite that it was clear that this young woman was actually very likeable. After we warmed her feet in the bathtub, I gave her a sweatshirt and sweatpants to wear, which she swam in - she weighs about 90 pounds soaking wet.
The next morning we got to the business of finding her some help: buying her a toothbrush, connecting her with friends, trying to retrieve her stuff, etc. When we left the house, I grabbed my Crocs for her to throw on over the socks she was wearing. Any of my shoes would have been hopelessly large, so the lightweight slip on shoes seemed the most reasonable option.
Now, a word about my Crocs. I LOVE those shoes. I saw them on a waitress in Asheville two summers ago and promptly went home and ordered them on-line. The thing that makes them so great is that I can wear them to work in the warmer weather, but it still feels like I'm wearing my flip flops. Those Crocs liberate me somehow when I'm forced to dress like an adult on beautiful summer days when I'd rather be at the beach. They were my favorite summer shoe last summer. But two factors were in play when I gave them to this young woman that day. First, it was winter. We all know how hard it is to remember how much we value our summer attire when it's too cold to even consider wearing shoes with no socks. And second, a month prior to this event our washing machine had broken and a small flood followed in our garage. When Jonathan and I frantically picked up items off the garage floor and dealt with all that water, I had worn my Crocs. What better shoe to deal with flooding than a light plastic one? But I hadn't gotten around to caring for them after the flood. There was no rush, after all, because it was cold out. All of this is to say I had temporarily forgotten the importance of the Croc.
Fast forward to today. It's 80 degrees outside and beautiful. My summer work wardrobe is back in my closet, and I am avoiding wearing socks at any possible cost. Our winter guest is happily (I hope) settled back in her apartment and is living her life, and my sweathshirt, sweatpants, and Crocs, I presume, are in a pile somewhere in her apartment. And I, simply put, am desperate to have those Crocs again. When we said goodbye that day in January she assured me that she'd be in touch and return my things, but I knew I'd never hear from her. That would have been 6 days before Jonathan and I decided to do the Stuff Stand-off. At that point, I figured I'd have a good excuse to buy myself a brand new pair of my favorite Crocs.
Jonathan actually saw our friend the other day while picking up a sandwich downtown, and she asked for my number so we could have lunch and she could return my things. When he told me this, I grasped his arm. "Next time you see her," I begged, "tell her she doesn't have to have lunch with me. I don't feel like she owes me anything. But please... please ask her if I can have my Crocs back!"
I have little hope for their return. I imagine in the end it might be tremendously awkward for her to be in touch with me, as I think she associates me with one of the worst nights of her life - and who can blame her for that? And ultimately, I don't regret helping her that night. It helped me more than it helped her I think. But I can't help but hear one of my boss' little sayings in my head - shaking his head and laughing he'll often mutter: "No good deed goes unpunished, you know?"
You're not kidding buddy. I wish that young woman only the very best, and think of her fondly. But boy do I miss those Crocs...
Friday, April 16, 2010
Wet Shoes in New Orleans
I can't believe how long it's been since I've written a blog entry! I can assure you, lack of entries is not from lack of Stuff Stand-off activity, and is instead from lack of free time. Holy Week is a special time for us clergy (and I mean special in a somewhat sarcastic special kind of way), and the 16 church services (not kidding) that I took part in from Palm Sunday to Easter kind of ate up all my free time. Then first thing Easter Monday I jumped into a van with a bunch of youth group kids and a couple adult chaperons to head to New Orleans for a mission trip there. After New Orleans I had to sleep, go through caffeine withdrawal (ugh), and take care of a few things at work and home. I'm finally home for the morning with nothing on my agenda, and I am one happy camper. Blog time finally appears.
The trip to New Orleans was really good, as those trips tend to be. I'm pretty much in love with that city, and I encourage anyone who hasn't been there to make a trip. I mean, there's a few down sides to New Orleans - extreme drunkenness, debauchery, and excessive nudity to name a few. But if you can just look past that, you'll find a city full of culture, beauty, and - best of all - music. I'll go ahead and say that my time in New Orleans has been my biggest challenge to date in our Stand-off. I've been there four times and you would think that I would be numb to the countless stores in the French Quarter designed just for shopping tourists. But each time I go my love for the city grows, and so also grows my desire for the latest cute t-shirt, or for a brightly colored painting, or for a second Cafe Du Monde mug (the first of which I am about to fill with coffee). And this time Jonathan couldn't be with us on the trip, so I found myself really wanting to bring him a piece of the city when I came home. Since I couldn't shop, I ate. The French Quarter Festival was taking place while we were there, which offers visitors two incredible opportunities - music and food. While we listened to a variety of great bands I chowed down on food from all different vendors surrounding the stages. Crawfish pies, roasted oysters, veal and crawfish po boys, and fish tacos. YUM! I want to go back already...
That's not actually the story I wanted to tell you about though. I just can't help mentioning that when I'm talking about the city. We weren't there for the French Quarter (or the beignets) though Lord knows that's a bonus. We were there to help with the rebuilding effort that continues in all parts of the city after Katrina. We worked in a home in the seventh ward, laying insulation, hanging dry wall, mudding, laying sub floors, and more. It's a great experience for the kids, and I tend to enjoy myself as well.
Long work days make for stinky feet though, and so at the end of the long work day we discovered the best place for our shoes was the porch on the second floor of the beautiful home where we were staying. Most people would stick their shoes out for a couple of hours to air out then bring them in, but I found no reason to bring mine in. The weather was beautiful and even if it wasn't the porch had a roof over it. Why not just get my shoes in the morning?
Our third night there however, a might rain storm swept through the area. I laid in bed listening to the rain and enjoying it - I love a good storm. I never gave a second thought to my protected shoes on the porch. What I didn't realize about that rain that I was happy to listen to was that it was coming down sideways. The next morning when I went to the porch to grab my sneakers I realized they were soaked through. When I picked them up, there were actually puddles underneath where the sneakers were, even though everything else on the porch was already dry.
I had packed two pairs of shoes for the trip: my sneakers for work, and my flip-flops for everything else. There was no alternative to the sneakers. With ten minutes before we had to leave for work, I had to throw them in the dryer and hope for the best.
I spent the next ten minutes trying to figure out what to do. The closest shoe size to me on the trip was one of the boys, and I just couldnt' bring myself to wear a pair of oversized boy sneakers all day. I'm the type that would be completely distracted and annoyed by something like that. I obviously couldn't wear my flip-flops - they weren't even allowed on the site. And I couldn't imagine my sneakers being even remotely dry even after their time in the dryer. Deciding that my work environment needed to supercede the Stuff Stand-off, I decided to go with the obvious solution and run by Walmart for a cheap pair of sneakers to wear that day.
Just as I was about to walk out the door for the store however, I had something of a guilt attack. After all, wasn't this the entire point of my Stand-off? To find out what happens when I can't just run out to the store and buy something new? Even though it was a work situation, it was my own carelessness that got my sneakers wet in the first place. It's hardly the same thing as justifying the purchase of a book that I honestly need to use for my work. Besides, a pair of Walmart sneakers is hardly worth the breach in our agreement for the year.
With a sigh, I walked back into the kitchen and grabbed myself a couple of sandwich bags from the pantry. Taking my now-extremely-moist shoes from the dryer, I pulled the sandwich bags over my toes and slipped my feet into my shoes. With my toes protected, I wasn't as bothered by the damp shoes, and once I went inside and started working at the site, I hardly noticed that there was anything different.
In my line of work, we use the expression "this too shall pass" a lot as a way of bringing people comfort. Seems to me that expression can also be used when the urge to purchase arises. I was pretty convinced I needed new sneakers that morning, but by the end of the day my shoes were dry and it was the furthest thing from my mind. If I had bought those sneakers, I'd be one guilty feeling blogger right now. Instead, I'm just the proud owner of a very old pair of running shoes that have survived another week on a mission trip. Oh, and I survived the trip too. Hooray for me and my sneakers!
Me and Fritz, and the mask I did not buy...
The trip to New Orleans was really good, as those trips tend to be. I'm pretty much in love with that city, and I encourage anyone who hasn't been there to make a trip. I mean, there's a few down sides to New Orleans - extreme drunkenness, debauchery, and excessive nudity to name a few. But if you can just look past that, you'll find a city full of culture, beauty, and - best of all - music. I'll go ahead and say that my time in New Orleans has been my biggest challenge to date in our Stand-off. I've been there four times and you would think that I would be numb to the countless stores in the French Quarter designed just for shopping tourists. But each time I go my love for the city grows, and so also grows my desire for the latest cute t-shirt, or for a brightly colored painting, or for a second Cafe Du Monde mug (the first of which I am about to fill with coffee). And this time Jonathan couldn't be with us on the trip, so I found myself really wanting to bring him a piece of the city when I came home. Since I couldn't shop, I ate. The French Quarter Festival was taking place while we were there, which offers visitors two incredible opportunities - music and food. While we listened to a variety of great bands I chowed down on food from all different vendors surrounding the stages. Crawfish pies, roasted oysters, veal and crawfish po boys, and fish tacos. YUM! I want to go back already...
That's not actually the story I wanted to tell you about though. I just can't help mentioning that when I'm talking about the city. We weren't there for the French Quarter (or the beignets) though Lord knows that's a bonus. We were there to help with the rebuilding effort that continues in all parts of the city after Katrina. We worked in a home in the seventh ward, laying insulation, hanging dry wall, mudding, laying sub floors, and more. It's a great experience for the kids, and I tend to enjoy myself as well.
Long work days make for stinky feet though, and so at the end of the long work day we discovered the best place for our shoes was the porch on the second floor of the beautiful home where we were staying. Most people would stick their shoes out for a couple of hours to air out then bring them in, but I found no reason to bring mine in. The weather was beautiful and even if it wasn't the porch had a roof over it. Why not just get my shoes in the morning?
Our third night there however, a might rain storm swept through the area. I laid in bed listening to the rain and enjoying it - I love a good storm. I never gave a second thought to my protected shoes on the porch. What I didn't realize about that rain that I was happy to listen to was that it was coming down sideways. The next morning when I went to the porch to grab my sneakers I realized they were soaked through. When I picked them up, there were actually puddles underneath where the sneakers were, even though everything else on the porch was already dry.
I had packed two pairs of shoes for the trip: my sneakers for work, and my flip-flops for everything else. There was no alternative to the sneakers. With ten minutes before we had to leave for work, I had to throw them in the dryer and hope for the best.
I spent the next ten minutes trying to figure out what to do. The closest shoe size to me on the trip was one of the boys, and I just couldnt' bring myself to wear a pair of oversized boy sneakers all day. I'm the type that would be completely distracted and annoyed by something like that. I obviously couldn't wear my flip-flops - they weren't even allowed on the site. And I couldn't imagine my sneakers being even remotely dry even after their time in the dryer. Deciding that my work environment needed to supercede the Stuff Stand-off, I decided to go with the obvious solution and run by Walmart for a cheap pair of sneakers to wear that day.
Just as I was about to walk out the door for the store however, I had something of a guilt attack. After all, wasn't this the entire point of my Stand-off? To find out what happens when I can't just run out to the store and buy something new? Even though it was a work situation, it was my own carelessness that got my sneakers wet in the first place. It's hardly the same thing as justifying the purchase of a book that I honestly need to use for my work. Besides, a pair of Walmart sneakers is hardly worth the breach in our agreement for the year.
With a sigh, I walked back into the kitchen and grabbed myself a couple of sandwich bags from the pantry. Taking my now-extremely-moist shoes from the dryer, I pulled the sandwich bags over my toes and slipped my feet into my shoes. With my toes protected, I wasn't as bothered by the damp shoes, and once I went inside and started working at the site, I hardly noticed that there was anything different.
In my line of work, we use the expression "this too shall pass" a lot as a way of bringing people comfort. Seems to me that expression can also be used when the urge to purchase arises. I was pretty convinced I needed new sneakers that morning, but by the end of the day my shoes were dry and it was the furthest thing from my mind. If I had bought those sneakers, I'd be one guilty feeling blogger right now. Instead, I'm just the proud owner of a very old pair of running shoes that have survived another week on a mission trip. Oh, and I survived the trip too. Hooray for me and my sneakers!
Me and Fritz, and the mask I did not buy...Saturday, March 27, 2010
Scanners, Security, and my Grandma... oh my!
My grandmother turned 90 yesterday. She moved into a nursing home after a fall she had at home in December and it became clear she couldn't live on her own anymore. She's been dreading living in a nursing home for years now, but to be honest she's doing pretty well there. She's gained back some of the weight she had lost and loves having so many people to talk to.
Despite how well she's doing with the transition, after her fall I decided that it was finally time for me to head to Connecticut to see Grandma, and to spend time with my Aunt Pat, my father's only sibling still living in the area, and her husband. It had been over 15 years since I had intentionally traveled to Connecticut for more than a couple of hours to see my father's family there, so a trip there was long overdue.
While I was looking forward to seeing them all I needed a plan for my time with Grandma. She's an incredible lady - strong willed, funny, and still has all her faculties about her. But that said, the hours with Grandma can get a little long, and she has a tendency to slide into some conversations that we've had too many times to count over the years. No way could I spend two days in a nursing home with her without something to do. So after speaking to my Aunt Pat, I developed a plan to go through some of Grandma's boxes of old pictures that had been moved out of her house when she sold it. Even better, I decided to bring our scanner so that I could scan the pictures in and take them home with me that way, and make copies for my siblings. I've wanted to get some history on our family for a long time, and this was a great chance to see pictures and to have Grandma tell me some stories.
I didn't think much of packing my scanner for my trip until it came time to actually put it in a bag. The thing is HUGE, because - of course - it is also our printer. I had planned to pop it in my carry-on bag with my clothes, but was shocked to discover that it filled my carry on bag in it's entirety! With the suitcase open on the floor and the printer/scanner practically spilling out of it, my patient husband turned to me and said "is it really necessary to bring this?"
I wish I could tell you that I calmly responded to his query, but what happened next was a mild emotional breakdown on my behalf while I lamented about needing a plan for all that time with Grandma, and how important it was to scan the pictures in, and you just don't understand what it's like... and so on. Feeling weak and confused, I sauntered into the living room and turned on my computer, quickly bringing myself to Walmart.com to look at scanners.
Turns out Walmart has really small scanners that can be purchased for about a hundred dollars. Scanners that would easily fit into my carry-on bag and save me all kinds of trouble. I started scheming to run to Walmart, buy a scanner, and then leave it with one of my family members in Connecticut - like somehow that wouldn't be an infringement of the Stuff Stand-off. I was so close to jumping in the car and heading to the store, but in a moment of clarity I came to my senses. Or maybe Jonathan helped me come to my senses. Whatever it was, I went back to my suitcase and neatly packed a towel around my scanner, filling another bag with my clothes in it to check onto the plane.
In my previous life, I wouldn't have hestitated to go out and buy that scanner even though I had a perfectly good one that I could bring with me. Even though I really didn't have to bring a scanner to Connecticut in the first place. My stubborn desire to see my agenda through would have been more than enough motivation for me to make a (kinda big) purchase like that. I can't believe, in retrospect, how easy it was to convince myself that the money spent on a second scanner just for airplane travel would be worth it. And on top of all that, I thought it would be okay to cheat on the Stand-off that way!
I was glad to have the scanner in Connecticut in the end, even though I did feel like a complete moron pulling the thing out while I was going through security. My grandmother enjoyed going through the pictures with me, and I heard a lot of great stories. The thing I hate to admit is that my aunt and uncle actually sent the pictures home with me when it was all over, so the truth is I could have just scanned everything in at home. But let's be serious - who's got that kind of time? I can hardly find time to blog about the experience much less scan all the pictures in!
Grandma and Grandpa on their honeymoon, 1943.
Despite how well she's doing with the transition, after her fall I decided that it was finally time for me to head to Connecticut to see Grandma, and to spend time with my Aunt Pat, my father's only sibling still living in the area, and her husband. It had been over 15 years since I had intentionally traveled to Connecticut for more than a couple of hours to see my father's family there, so a trip there was long overdue.
While I was looking forward to seeing them all I needed a plan for my time with Grandma. She's an incredible lady - strong willed, funny, and still has all her faculties about her. But that said, the hours with Grandma can get a little long, and she has a tendency to slide into some conversations that we've had too many times to count over the years. No way could I spend two days in a nursing home with her without something to do. So after speaking to my Aunt Pat, I developed a plan to go through some of Grandma's boxes of old pictures that had been moved out of her house when she sold it. Even better, I decided to bring our scanner so that I could scan the pictures in and take them home with me that way, and make copies for my siblings. I've wanted to get some history on our family for a long time, and this was a great chance to see pictures and to have Grandma tell me some stories.
I didn't think much of packing my scanner for my trip until it came time to actually put it in a bag. The thing is HUGE, because - of course - it is also our printer. I had planned to pop it in my carry-on bag with my clothes, but was shocked to discover that it filled my carry on bag in it's entirety! With the suitcase open on the floor and the printer/scanner practically spilling out of it, my patient husband turned to me and said "is it really necessary to bring this?"
I wish I could tell you that I calmly responded to his query, but what happened next was a mild emotional breakdown on my behalf while I lamented about needing a plan for all that time with Grandma, and how important it was to scan the pictures in, and you just don't understand what it's like... and so on. Feeling weak and confused, I sauntered into the living room and turned on my computer, quickly bringing myself to Walmart.com to look at scanners.
Turns out Walmart has really small scanners that can be purchased for about a hundred dollars. Scanners that would easily fit into my carry-on bag and save me all kinds of trouble. I started scheming to run to Walmart, buy a scanner, and then leave it with one of my family members in Connecticut - like somehow that wouldn't be an infringement of the Stuff Stand-off. I was so close to jumping in the car and heading to the store, but in a moment of clarity I came to my senses. Or maybe Jonathan helped me come to my senses. Whatever it was, I went back to my suitcase and neatly packed a towel around my scanner, filling another bag with my clothes in it to check onto the plane.
In my previous life, I wouldn't have hestitated to go out and buy that scanner even though I had a perfectly good one that I could bring with me. Even though I really didn't have to bring a scanner to Connecticut in the first place. My stubborn desire to see my agenda through would have been more than enough motivation for me to make a (kinda big) purchase like that. I can't believe, in retrospect, how easy it was to convince myself that the money spent on a second scanner just for airplane travel would be worth it. And on top of all that, I thought it would be okay to cheat on the Stand-off that way!
I was glad to have the scanner in Connecticut in the end, even though I did feel like a complete moron pulling the thing out while I was going through security. My grandmother enjoyed going through the pictures with me, and I heard a lot of great stories. The thing I hate to admit is that my aunt and uncle actually sent the pictures home with me when it was all over, so the truth is I could have just scanned everything in at home. But let's be serious - who's got that kind of time? I can hardly find time to blog about the experience much less scan all the pictures in!
So I guess this kind of thing is what this Stand-off is all about - lugging your big old scanner/printer around the airport, through security, into the rental car, and towards your grandmother. Now that it's over, and my scanner and I are home, it doesn't seem like it was all that bad. And I'm not out a hundred dollars and the new owner of a small scanner that I wouldn't really ever use. And I have great pictures to show my friends and family. Still, I thought when I was finally tempted to cheat on the Stand-off it would be for something I really needed or wanted. But another scanner?! Come on now...
Grandma and Grandpa on their honeymoon, 1943.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Books
Of all the things I've missed buying since we started the Stuff Stand-off, books are actually the thing I miss the most. This was a surprise to me, because I might have otherwise guessed shoes or clothing. But it's books... books are what I long for.
I just love going to bookstores, particularly privately owned ones like The Country Bookshop in downtown Southern Pines. The Country Bookshop has older wooden floors that creak under your feet, and beautiful shelves that have books sorted by topics more specific and fun than just "fiction" or "biography". The staff is friendly and kind, the Girl Scouts sell cookies outside, and the doors are usually thrown open to let the warm weather inside. It's paradise there. I love to go in and pick up the books just to feel them in my hands. And then, after I've touched them all and felt the pages and read the slip cover, I choose one or two to buy and take home - a small piece of paradise on my bed side table. I just love new books.
Sadly, I ran out of my new books about a month ago. I had some that I hadn't caught up with, but when the Stand-off started I went ahead and read them. Now I'm all out. And I'm longing for a fresh new book, especially one of those ones where the pages are all floppy and they have that little jagged edge along the outside - do you know what I mean? They feel so good in your hands. But I can't have them. I go to the bookstore to visit my friend Bonnie who works there, or to buy Girl Scout cookies, or just to smell the place - but I cannot buy. It's killing me.
Trying to overcome my need for new books, I took a trip to the Southern Pines library today. I haven't gone to the library for something other than a specific school book or a book on cd for a road trip since I was a little girl. I thought I might discover that I actually love the library, and that there was a whole FREE world available to me at any time (or at least during their limited business hours).
Instead, to my dismay, I found myself a little overwhelmed there. When shopping for clothing, I'm much more likely to go to Ann Taylor or Banana Republic than I am to go to Marshalls or TJ Maxx. Even though I know I can get great clothes at cheaper prices at Marshalls, I can't hack the shopping experience. I don't have what it takes to go through rack after rack, pushing through the jeans I'd never wear to find the one pair of Seven's that I could never otherwise afford. I lose my patience in those stores, and I give up after lame attempts at finding something good. Other friends of mine come home with pieces that I all but drool over. But I don't know how they do it. And I can't seem to do it myself. No, I need a store where the clothes are begging for me to buy them. I need them to be laid out with pants and a necklace that would accent each piece. I need all the sizes for one shirt to be in the same color in the same place so I can find the very one I need without walking to another part of the store. I need the space between aisles and displays to wander and dance to the music that is playing in the store. I need it to be easy.
What I found at the library was an experience akin to being at Marshalls. Are there lots and lots and lots of great books that I can take home for free? Yes. Did I have the patience to wander up and down the aisles looking for them? No. How could I decide what book to take when I can't see the covers? If they are only in "fiction" how can I know really what type of book it is and whether or not I want to read it? And why can't I have access to all the new and pretty books that they have in the bookstore? Anything I find at the library has already been out for a while. It just wasn't new enough, or exciting enough. The books weren't begging me to borrow them the way the books in the Country Bookshop beg me to buy them.
Wanting to leave quickly (as is always the case at Marshalls) I went straight to the authors that I know I like and grabbed two books. Now I'll admit, checking them out was pretty cool now that there's a 'do it yourself' counter. And then I waltzed right out the door, nothing needed but my key chain library card. It is nice to not pay. But I'm still a little worried about my relationship with the library. I'm going to need to figure out a way to find the good books in there without getting lost and impatient. I'm going to have to find a better way, and learn to love the high shelves that go on and on and on. I'm not giving up reading for the year. So me and the library, we're going to have to work this thing out...
I just love going to bookstores, particularly privately owned ones like The Country Bookshop in downtown Southern Pines. The Country Bookshop has older wooden floors that creak under your feet, and beautiful shelves that have books sorted by topics more specific and fun than just "fiction" or "biography". The staff is friendly and kind, the Girl Scouts sell cookies outside, and the doors are usually thrown open to let the warm weather inside. It's paradise there. I love to go in and pick up the books just to feel them in my hands. And then, after I've touched them all and felt the pages and read the slip cover, I choose one or two to buy and take home - a small piece of paradise on my bed side table. I just love new books.
Sadly, I ran out of my new books about a month ago. I had some that I hadn't caught up with, but when the Stand-off started I went ahead and read them. Now I'm all out. And I'm longing for a fresh new book, especially one of those ones where the pages are all floppy and they have that little jagged edge along the outside - do you know what I mean? They feel so good in your hands. But I can't have them. I go to the bookstore to visit my friend Bonnie who works there, or to buy Girl Scout cookies, or just to smell the place - but I cannot buy. It's killing me.
Trying to overcome my need for new books, I took a trip to the Southern Pines library today. I haven't gone to the library for something other than a specific school book or a book on cd for a road trip since I was a little girl. I thought I might discover that I actually love the library, and that there was a whole FREE world available to me at any time (or at least during their limited business hours).
Instead, to my dismay, I found myself a little overwhelmed there. When shopping for clothing, I'm much more likely to go to Ann Taylor or Banana Republic than I am to go to Marshalls or TJ Maxx. Even though I know I can get great clothes at cheaper prices at Marshalls, I can't hack the shopping experience. I don't have what it takes to go through rack after rack, pushing through the jeans I'd never wear to find the one pair of Seven's that I could never otherwise afford. I lose my patience in those stores, and I give up after lame attempts at finding something good. Other friends of mine come home with pieces that I all but drool over. But I don't know how they do it. And I can't seem to do it myself. No, I need a store where the clothes are begging for me to buy them. I need them to be laid out with pants and a necklace that would accent each piece. I need all the sizes for one shirt to be in the same color in the same place so I can find the very one I need without walking to another part of the store. I need the space between aisles and displays to wander and dance to the music that is playing in the store. I need it to be easy.
What I found at the library was an experience akin to being at Marshalls. Are there lots and lots and lots of great books that I can take home for free? Yes. Did I have the patience to wander up and down the aisles looking for them? No. How could I decide what book to take when I can't see the covers? If they are only in "fiction" how can I know really what type of book it is and whether or not I want to read it? And why can't I have access to all the new and pretty books that they have in the bookstore? Anything I find at the library has already been out for a while. It just wasn't new enough, or exciting enough. The books weren't begging me to borrow them the way the books in the Country Bookshop beg me to buy them.
Wanting to leave quickly (as is always the case at Marshalls) I went straight to the authors that I know I like and grabbed two books. Now I'll admit, checking them out was pretty cool now that there's a 'do it yourself' counter. And then I waltzed right out the door, nothing needed but my key chain library card. It is nice to not pay. But I'm still a little worried about my relationship with the library. I'm going to need to figure out a way to find the good books in there without getting lost and impatient. I'm going to have to find a better way, and learn to love the high shelves that go on and on and on. I'm not giving up reading for the year. So me and the library, we're going to have to work this thing out...
Rule #6
Well, it's time to enact rule #6. To refresh your memory, rule #6 of the Stuff Stand-off is that if we are given something by someone else that we want to keep, something already in the house has to go.
Over the last few weeks we've acquired some stuff. I've kept track of it here and there so we could be sure to get rid of some things, and it was nothing major. A ceramic pot that went with beautiful tulips, a Coast Guard sweatshirt from my sister which was given to Jonathan at Christmas but needed to be a different size (it came in the mail last week), and a couple of books that people gave me to read. We knew that the exchange had to be made, but we hadn't gotten around to it.
Then this past Sunday I was given a gift at church - a big gift. There's a local painter in town who had painted a picture of the Blessing of the Hunt, an Annual Southern Pines Thanksgiving Day tradition that I have been able to take part in over the last two years (the Anglican priest in town does the blessing). It's a totally cool event, with the local riders dressed in their red coats, and the hounds prepared to follow the fox scent, and hundreds of people there to watch the blessing and see the horses ride off into the woods. It's one of those quintessential Southern Pines events that you wouldn't find anywhere else, and it's one of the reasons I love it here so much.
Anyway, this artist's beautiful painting featured - you got it - me! So there I am with my hand raised in blessing and all the horses and riders and dogs gathered around me. It's a great piece, with vibrant colors and a gold frame. It's unlike anything Jonathan and I have in our possession. The piece was donated to the Penick Art Show, where the money for it's purchase would benefit residents at the nursing home who had run out of funds. I would have loved to have bought it, but besides remembering the Stand-off, it was outside of our price range. Instead I simply admired it from afar.
But my great friends and parishioners decided I had to have it, and presented me with it on Sunday. And I'm thrilled. This is the kind of thing that I'll cherish for the rest of my life. But now it was officially time to move some things out of our house.
So we did a little "spring cleaning" the other day, given that it was finally 70 degrees here. I have to admit, I was a little embarrassed going through our closets to see how much we had in there that had to go. And we only went through two closets! For the purpose of record-keeping, here's what is on it's way out the door:
- Sheets. We had five sets of sheets for beds that we no longer have - twins and fulls. I was keeping them for some reason. Just in case we got another full sized bed I guess. But we have a king, and our guest room is a queen, and there was just no reason to have all those sheets. We even got rid of a king and queen set that we know for sure will never be used again.
- Framed pictures. Since we got a framed picture, we figure it's time to let go of some. We have a small collection of framed pieces (mostly that belonged to my dad) that live in a closet in our study that will likely never hang on our walls. We keep them for sentimental reasons, or because we deeply love the people we acquired them from. But it's time. Time to realize that those pictures are not my father, and by giving them away I am not giving away my memory of him. I simply cannot carry a closet full of paintings to each house I move to.
- Board games. I wish I could say we made a huge sacrifice here, but we simply got rid of board games that we had multiples of, or that I had never even played and/or heard of. We had two of the original Trivial Pursuit games, and seven - that's right, SEVEN - Scrabble games. Two travel Scrabbles, an Onyx edition, a Super Scrabble, two regular red boxed Scrabbles, and one older version of Scrabble. We only got rid of one of them I think. I still have some work to do on letting go of Scrabble. No wait - we decided to get rid of two. Either way, it was good to cleanse the game closet, and actually with the sheets gone we were able to add the games to what has previously been the overflowing linen closet.
- A couple of throw pillows. We recently discovered that we have 13 spare pillows in our house, not counting the ones on our bed. I thought about keeping these particular throw pillows (from a couch we have given away) for meditation practice, but who am I kidding? If I need a pillow I have PLENTY of alternatives.
That's it for now. Probably I should get rid of one set of sheets at a time so I can stretch that over the year for any other gifts I get, but I think that might be cheating. So we're taking them all at once.
When I'm finished with this blog, I'll be going to get the painting out of the car and hanging it on my wall. Maybe I'll post a picture. I will love having it, and love knowing what I had to give away in order to have it on the wall. Maybe I'll even appreciate it more that way!
Over the last few weeks we've acquired some stuff. I've kept track of it here and there so we could be sure to get rid of some things, and it was nothing major. A ceramic pot that went with beautiful tulips, a Coast Guard sweatshirt from my sister which was given to Jonathan at Christmas but needed to be a different size (it came in the mail last week), and a couple of books that people gave me to read. We knew that the exchange had to be made, but we hadn't gotten around to it.
Then this past Sunday I was given a gift at church - a big gift. There's a local painter in town who had painted a picture of the Blessing of the Hunt, an Annual Southern Pines Thanksgiving Day tradition that I have been able to take part in over the last two years (the Anglican priest in town does the blessing). It's a totally cool event, with the local riders dressed in their red coats, and the hounds prepared to follow the fox scent, and hundreds of people there to watch the blessing and see the horses ride off into the woods. It's one of those quintessential Southern Pines events that you wouldn't find anywhere else, and it's one of the reasons I love it here so much.
Anyway, this artist's beautiful painting featured - you got it - me! So there I am with my hand raised in blessing and all the horses and riders and dogs gathered around me. It's a great piece, with vibrant colors and a gold frame. It's unlike anything Jonathan and I have in our possession. The piece was donated to the Penick Art Show, where the money for it's purchase would benefit residents at the nursing home who had run out of funds. I would have loved to have bought it, but besides remembering the Stand-off, it was outside of our price range. Instead I simply admired it from afar.
But my great friends and parishioners decided I had to have it, and presented me with it on Sunday. And I'm thrilled. This is the kind of thing that I'll cherish for the rest of my life. But now it was officially time to move some things out of our house.
So we did a little "spring cleaning" the other day, given that it was finally 70 degrees here. I have to admit, I was a little embarrassed going through our closets to see how much we had in there that had to go. And we only went through two closets! For the purpose of record-keeping, here's what is on it's way out the door:
- Sheets. We had five sets of sheets for beds that we no longer have - twins and fulls. I was keeping them for some reason. Just in case we got another full sized bed I guess. But we have a king, and our guest room is a queen, and there was just no reason to have all those sheets. We even got rid of a king and queen set that we know for sure will never be used again.
- Framed pictures. Since we got a framed picture, we figure it's time to let go of some. We have a small collection of framed pieces (mostly that belonged to my dad) that live in a closet in our study that will likely never hang on our walls. We keep them for sentimental reasons, or because we deeply love the people we acquired them from. But it's time. Time to realize that those pictures are not my father, and by giving them away I am not giving away my memory of him. I simply cannot carry a closet full of paintings to each house I move to.
- Board games. I wish I could say we made a huge sacrifice here, but we simply got rid of board games that we had multiples of, or that I had never even played and/or heard of. We had two of the original Trivial Pursuit games, and seven - that's right, SEVEN - Scrabble games. Two travel Scrabbles, an Onyx edition, a Super Scrabble, two regular red boxed Scrabbles, and one older version of Scrabble. We only got rid of one of them I think. I still have some work to do on letting go of Scrabble. No wait - we decided to get rid of two. Either way, it was good to cleanse the game closet, and actually with the sheets gone we were able to add the games to what has previously been the overflowing linen closet.
- A couple of throw pillows. We recently discovered that we have 13 spare pillows in our house, not counting the ones on our bed. I thought about keeping these particular throw pillows (from a couch we have given away) for meditation practice, but who am I kidding? If I need a pillow I have PLENTY of alternatives.
That's it for now. Probably I should get rid of one set of sheets at a time so I can stretch that over the year for any other gifts I get, but I think that might be cheating. So we're taking them all at once.
When I'm finished with this blog, I'll be going to get the painting out of the car and hanging it on my wall. Maybe I'll post a picture. I will love having it, and love knowing what I had to give away in order to have it on the wall. Maybe I'll even appreciate it more that way!
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