This morning, as I set out on my run, it was a perfect Miami Beach winter morning. It was 57 degrees. The sky was tinged with red and orange as the sun rose. A nice breeze blew in from the sea. It was so heavenly I decided to turn my three-mile run into a five-mile run. The only problem with this lovely, perfect morning is that it’s not January in Miami Beach. It’s November, outside of Boston. Where is my fall weather! I’m longing for all my indoor projects–putting together photo albums, baking bread, making marshmallows for hot chocolate–but the weather stubbornly refuses to cooperate!
Despite the weather, but probably owing to the run, I’m actually feeling pretty good. I’m worried if I’m not cranky that you’ll think that aliens have absconded with me and replaced me with a pod person. I’m tempted to throw in a “bite me” here, just so you’ll know it’s me, but really, I have nothing to be bitten about. In fact, despite the weather that simply begs for me to go outside, I’ve been in a cleaning-house mode, which puts me into a downright cheerful mood.
I’ve been on a HUGE purge kick. I love purging! There’s something so freeing about realizing, “I really don’t think we are the kind of household that needs not one, but two potato mashers” or “Considering that it’s been almost two years since we’ve owned a VCR, I think these tapes can go,” and then actually removing said items from the house. Goodwill. Freecycle. These are my best friends. (Ooh, I have a good Freecycle find, but I’m going to save that for another post.)
I have a DVD collection to end all DVD collections. Okay, not completely true–I know there are more fanatical film folks out there with larger collections. However, as I spent three and a half years on the DVD and Video editorial team of Amazon, you can know that I amassed a fairly decent sized collection, as you can see:
As I’ve mentioned before, about 75% of these are still in wrappers, but one of these days, we’ll be desperate for a movie and happy we have them! True, I thought of this before Netflix streaming and Roku, but I still hold fast to that thought!
It’s a strange assortment. Adam used to bemoan the fact that we had Lethal Weapon 4, but not 1, 2, or 3. It was all a matter of what I was sent from the studios. But we’d also get some oddball ones that I’ve held onto because I didn’t know what else to do with them. For instance, I actually own a copy of S*x Tips with Heidi Fleiss and Victoria Sellers. Why? Who knows? And I’ve had one DVD (still sealed, I might add) that was given to me by a coworker when I got engaged, I believe. I’ve held onto primarily because, to whom do you give something like this (posted in thumbnail size for those of you who are delicate):
I’m guessing Goodwill doesn’t want it. I certainly don’t want the kind of person who would pick this up on Freecycle anywhere near my house. So despite all my “eco” talk, I threw this in the trash. Sorry, folks.
In my cleanse, I Freecycled old speakers, a monitor that was used two computers ago, a bed tray that we’ve used exactly once. I did hold some questionable things. Anyone want to guess why the heck I have four packages of doilies:
And, yet, I couldn’t part with them. How could I? I mean, I could have a dire need for a doily any day now.
To reward myself for all my lovely purging, I took a trip to the Container Store today, and bought all sorts of wonderful things to use to contain all my nice, new purged belongings. Nothing makes me happier than an organized space (okay, maybe my children and husband, or the hope of getting my novel published, or an evening free for reality TV, but work with me, folks).
Now, if you’ll excuse, I’m going to go stare at my shelves. They’re just so lovely!
