Making a trip to Turn It Up! Part II

"I also went through every CD I own. I was planning on sorting them into 3 piles: 'definitely keeping', 'maybe keeping', and 'definitely getting rid of". I somehow found myself with 6 or 7, with fun titles including (...) 'there's 1 or 2 tracks on here I know I like and should burn before I give this away'. That last one had 23 albums in it. Too big of a project for this evening."

Done and done. Although, I'm such a sucker. I found myself simply not ready to part with Jill Sobule, Tracy Bonham, The Muffs or the Barenaked Ladies Live album. Jackson 5 'Soulsation!' box set, however, your time has come.

  Off to Keene to run this and many other important errands.



*Update- The gentleman who was working at Turn It Up! today told me that my CDs were too scratched and he could not buy them. Really? ALL of them? He was, by the way, a different gentleman than the guy who bought EVERYTHING I had last time. Note to self: keep an eye on the Turn It Up! shift schedule. 

If you are interested in any of these- hit me up. I already had a taker for the J5 box set.  Thanks Lucy!
  

"The worst is not, So long as we can say, 'This is the worst.' "

Thursday afternoon I was driving out to a meeting. I was thinking about the less-than-stellar day I had had. As per my MO, this got me thinking about all kinds of things- my current living situation, job uncertainty, and the mountain of things on my to-do list that are piling up. As I was pulling out of town, I found myself thinking, "Man, I could really use a win right now."

Roughly half an hour later, I had skidded down an snowy hill into a guard rail.

This is the second car accident I have been in in 6 months. Friday afternoon I came home and took the owners manual from my "real" car (as in, not the pre-millennium grandma car I replaced it with, which is now also totaled) and put it in the glove compartment.

This is the Yaris I smashed in September. I was not what one would call, "insurance savvy" and am still making payments on it. (If it is still on my parents property, does it qualify as a useless piece of crap I need to figure out what to do with?)

I don't know what your relationship with fate is like, but mine is not what I anticipated. I was looking for some sort of protective parent, who says to me, "Hey kiddo, you seem like you had a rough week.  Let's see if we can get you some ice cream." Instead, fate's parenting philosophy for me seems to be, "You want something to cry about? I'll give you something to cry about."

This is when I reached the startling conclusion that the whole Debbie Downer routine is not going to work for me. Ironically, this comes on the heels of a friend of mine complaining on Facebook that she was sick on Valentine's Day, to which I pointed out that she had "publicly berated children" earlier that day and that "Karma is a bitch".  So true.....

So, Thursday night, I pulled my car off to the side of the road, used the Police and towing contacts that were already in my phone from the last time I was in an accident (they were both in neighboring towns), let myself think about what a shitty situation this was for about 30 seconds and then dealt with all the necessary service folks involved with a smile, plenty of Thank Yous, and all of my tears in tact. The fact that I have much better insurance now didn't hurt either.

You are probably thinking one of two things right now:

Thought 1: Just one post this week instead of the barrage you usually feel the need to share? You moved one thing this weekend? And it is Monday night! Aren't you like, 30 hours late?

Well, the cherry on this sundae is that I spent my entire day yesterday sick in bed, and therefore could neither move anything else nor stay awake long enough between bouts of puking to compose a post. Upshot- Because I was home sick today I could talk to my insurance agent in more depth. Silver lining found.

Thought 2: But Manda, isn't all this moaning and groaning about how awful your weekend was, especially since it is a stretch at best to connect it to the content of this blog, really going against what you just said about not being a Debbie Downer?

Touche my friend. Touche. 

The Rest of Today/ A Peek Inside My Noggin

I did more sorting today than cleaning, meaning I filled a half a trash bag of stuff to throw out and a box of things to donate, but made minimal progress in the hour and a half I spent in my room. Other items of interest today include:

Another Stack of Books

As you can see, I am starting in on Film Study text books (one of 3 or 4 unfinished minors I had in college), more "inspirational teacher books"- which I have grown to dislike almost as much as I do "inspirational teacher movies", more English Lit text books, and more novels I have never read.

A Wind Chime

 

I love elephants, and this one used to belong to my grandfather. Still, awful hard to hang it on your porch when you don't live in your own house.

Some Shoes

I find heels to be so pretty, yet so painful. The fact that I have wide feet doesn't help the comfort level much. 

Whatever This Thing Is

My fiance went to Japan a few years ago and brought this back for me. While I do remember what he told me it was for, I'll let you try to figure it out on your own.

 

This little monkey was one of the harder things for me to part with today, not because I had an emotional attachment to it specifically, but because it was a gift from someone else. I had a similar experience when I found a geode on my book shelf last week. It was an 18th birthday gift from a friend and had a beautiful note from her telling me how much she valued our friendship and that she had the other half.

It was so sweet that I sent her a Facebook message telling her what I had found. I expected that she would barely remember it, if at all. Do you know what she actually said? "I still have mine! It is in my bedroom!"(Note that this girl has probably moved more thank I have in the past 11 years, and this rock has apparently traveled with her). I then took said geode out of the "chuck it" pile and put it back on a different shelf. This is the next big hurtle to overcome. When I ditch the things other people gave me as gifts, I feel like it means I'm not holding up my end of the bargain: that it means I don't really value our friendship.

Remember how I said that I multiple unfinished minors in college? Did I mention that psych may have been one of the ones I was toying with?

Oh the Drama!

"This is the way we were: in our growing up and in our marrying and in our living and in our dying."

-from Our Town, by Thorton Wilder 

(it seemed fitting for this blog) 

Once upon a time, I was a theater kid.

 For as much as I berated parents who over-schedule their children in last week's post, the truth of the matter is, I myself always had some extra curricular to run off to. Drama was one of them. My friends and I put in ten to sixteen hour days at our high school during the run of any show.

When I started, I don't think I anticipated it becoming as significant a part of my high school experience as it did. My freshman year I was in the chorus for the spring musical production of Once Upon a Mattress. I had a grand time singing songs with everyone else, dancing a little, and simply milling around on stage. I was more a moving part of the scenery than anything else. I anticipated that the rest of my acting career would be spent thusly.

Part of my costume for Once Upon a Mattress

Imagine my surprise when the cast list for Our Town went up sophomore year and it did not say Towns Person Number 3 next to my name, but rather, Mrs. Webb.  For those of your unfamiliar, Mrs. Webb is the main character's mother. I am still convinced that the only reason I got this role was because my boyfriend at the time was cast as Mr. Webb, even though there was at least a one foot height discrepancy between us and we looked ridiculous on stage together. Still, it was the first of many supporting roles I would play.

 Later that year, I played a military recruiter in Rank, an original musical written by Mr. Clark, our director, with music by Mr. Sweeney, the head of our music department, in which a graduating senior class tackle the trials and tribulations of the college application process. That year I was also in a student run production of Impromptu playing Laura, "The Ingenue" (the first and only time I had such a title). Senior year I was Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible, followed by the Dark Witch in Dark of the Moon (a star-crossed love story about freaky Appalachian witchcraft- not to be confused with the Pink Floyd album of a similar title, or the upcoming Transformers movie of the exact same title). Chorus roles in other spring musicals were also thrown in the mix.

High school drama introduced me to the wonders of the Educational Theater Guild. Like OM/ DI, Oceanbowl or Show Choir in the days before Glee, this is one of those extra curriculars that consumes large chunks of your time, is a huge deal if you make it to states/ regionals/ nationals, and that no one else has ever heard of or cares about. And just what is ETG you ask?

Competitive Theater.

 Given that this entry has already gone on much longer than I had anticipated, I won't give you the break down of how one gets scored on their acting and tech skills (and because other than the strict time limits for set up, I really can't remember). All you need to know is that my school almost always went to at least States and this was where most of my tech experience came from.

 In college, I *almost* completed a theater minor. I was still actively involved plays, but exclusively as a techie, or "behind the scenes person" in layman's terms. I do miss being on stage from time to time, but not enough to seek out any of the multiple community theater groups contained within the Monadnock region, or commit to weeks of evening rehearsals for what will ultimately amount to only a handful of performances.

I used this book for most of my auditions. Today it was officially retired.

Stories from the Shelf

Today I cleaned off this bookshelf:

I'm guessing you are either very impressed (which you shouldn't be. I  just moved most of this stuff into different piles around the room) or wondering where this even is (which is perfectly logical, since it isn't even visible in photos like this):

 

It is underneath the window, just right of the bed. Before today, it used to be home to all my old year books from school and camp, text books, photo albums, and various knickknacks of  sentimental value. It used to look like this:

All the stuff I am keeping has been stored away under the bed for right now. In truth, I do far more shuffling and re-arranging then actual cleaning. It is more of a sifting process than a clean sweep.  Anyway, here are some of today's highlights.

My 20/20 Headband

This is yet another piece of Geek Squadron paraphernalia. One night, whilst driving home from a fun filled adventure at 6 Flags, we were discussing where to stop for dinner. Someone suggested McDonald's. I don't remember why we started talking about Happy Meals specifically, but I do remember it was my friend Rob who said he was so hungry that he could eat at least two of them.  Some one else said they could eat 3. Rob quickly upped it to 4. Before you knew it, there were 6 of us at the counter ordering 20 Happy Meals, which we devoured in 20 minutes time. Thus, the first 20/20 was born. This challenge was attempted multiple other times; enough that we made headbands for those who completed it. But it was not as impressive when, say, 13 of us showed up to take it on.

My First Duck

Our senior year in college, someone found personalized rubber duckies with all our roommates names on them. This either led to, or was an early part of, us decided to decorate our suite's bathroom in rubber duckies. Wall poster. Shower curtain. Hand towels. You name it. We then took all our duck stuff to the off campus apartment we got for our grad year. Then I took it all to my first solo apartment on Cedar Street after that. Pretty sure that shower curtain is somewhere in my closet. Look for it in future posts.

Corsage from my Brother's Wedding

 

There's no big story here. I struggled a bit to let this one go, but quickly realized I will never wear this again. Still, nice to appreciate it. I'm pretty sure my sister-in-law made these by hand.

 

This badge is from a band trip to Virginia my freshman year. Oh the glory days. It's a shame I somehow never managed to attach this to an article of clothing or put it on public display.

 Tabachnick Pudding

Summer camp, like many institutions that serve mass quantities of children, receives surplus government food. In the summer of 2004, it was pudding. Pudding for dessert. Pudding for snack. Pudding for a "special treat" during evening program. The pudding was so prevalent, that my campers started to collect it. They smuggled it out of the dining hall in their pockets. They hoarded it in their backpacks. My co-leader and I convinced someone on the kitchen staff to let us sneak in and take some for our kids. One morning, the rest of camp lined up for flag, only to find that the flag pole was blocked off by a castle made of pudding cans. It was awesome.

Candlelight Candle

Camp's closing ceremony is done entirely by candlelight. All the electric lights on campus are turned off for the night. We have a quiet, reflective ceremony together in the lodge by the lake, then kids and staff members a like find their way back to their cabins using only the light from their birch round candles. It is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. For those of you who already know what you're looking at, you'll get a kick out of the bottom of this candle.

 

 

When I Used to be a Grown Up

I spend an awful lot of time on this blog reminiscing about my childhood and teen years. I have wept over plush stuffed animals and ratty dolls, rediscovered the wonders of the music I loved as a kid, and on numerous occasions recounted the nerdy high school hijinks of which I was a part.

While tackling some of the boxes that were newly moved in, I found myself getting overwhelmed for an entirely new reason. These are from the apartments I had after finishing college. As I sorted through dishes, bakeware, magazines, and office junk, I was reminded that there was, believe it or not, a time when I was a self-supporting adult. I was kind of a hot mess- slugging through a delightful "quarter life crisis" (which I anticipate will wrap up any day now)-  but I was a mess who was doing her own grocery shopping and paying utility bills and doing all those other fun grown-up things we looked forward to as kids. Let's take a look at some archaeological treasures from that time.

Through no fault of my own, I got really into Pfaltzgraff dishes. My sister had picked out a pattern and insisted that I do the same after graduation (you can view it here). After at least a year of getting dishes for graduation, my birthday and Christmas, I had a full set for a dinner party of eight. My collection includes, but is certainly not limited to, salad plates, a gravy boat, two different salt and pepper shaker sets, kitchen jars, a dish especially designed for my car keys, and a serving platter large enough for a Thanksgiving turkey. I kept ALL the boxes, because I moved every spring and I thought it was safer than putting them in regular boxes. That is how one ends up with boxes full of other boxes taking up a whole corner of someone else's room.  I consolidated into two large plastic bins. We'll just have to cross our fingers and hope they survive the next yet-to-be-planned move.
(In case you were wonder, yes, I use these dishes for a dinner party. Just once. There were only 4 people there.)

This is my date book from when I worked for a high-end tutoring company in Fairfield County Connecticut. It lists appointments for students with first names like Barrett, Weston, Madison, and Bray. In addition to tutoring, I also worked as the Assistant Director of a small satellite office. Basically my main duties were collecting paper work from new clients and appointment setting. Here's my end of a typical phone call:

 "Hello Mrs. Goldstein. You'd like to sign your child up for standardized test prep tutoring even though he's only 9? No problem. I have the perfect tutor in mind. He works Mondays,  Wednesdays and Thursdays. Oh, your son can't make those days because he has tennis, riding,  and cello lessons? Well, what days can you do? Saturday morning? Okay, let me see what I can work out."


....a little while later....


"Okay, the tutor will come in especially for your child on Saturdays. I had to call in some favors, because the tutor didn't think he'd be working weekends. But he is new, so he knows that he could take you on as clients or not have any at all. He's going to go ahead and start a program with your child this Saturday. Oh, this week is no good? You just remembered your son has a lacrosse tournament? Okay, let me call  him back and let him know you'll start next week. What's that? You insist on starting this week to prepare for an elementary school entrance exam that is still 4 months away? Alright. I'll see if the tutor can come in Sunday."


...later on...


"So, we are all set. We're going to open the facility Sunday afternoon especially for your son and his tutor, who thankfully canceled the weekend plans he had. Oh, you say your son's father has just told you he is surprising you all by chartering a small plane to take the family to Martha's Vineyard for the day on Sunday? Hold on, let me get the tutor back on the phone...."

I was about a month in to that job when I decided I would much rather be working in a real school.

And finally, a barrage of pop feminist magazines. I'll say it. Not all of us consider the dawn of our current millennium as a shining moment in our nation's politics. For angsty teenagers who never quite found causes to attach to (or vehemently oppose), however, the Bush era sure did give us a lot. In college I started to take an active interest in women's issues. By the time I graduated, subscriptions to multiple edgy feminist magazines seemed totally warranted.  I'm not saying I don't sill read these fine publications from time to time, but I did not ever think I would be living here long enough to get a subscription sent to this address.

Loading up the Car

Since I was gone last weekend, nothing got done. Here is my new goal for this week: I want to get rid of a full car load worth of stuff. Here's what I cleaned out today:

• Two trash bags of actual trash
• Three paper bags filled with paper for the wood stove
• Two boxes filled with literally just other collapsed cardboard boxes. 
• My first TV and VCR/ DVD Player 
• A printer/ scanner/ photocopier that I haven't used in years
• A trash bag filled with clothes I haven't worn in a while and  my brother's old clothes that came out of the dresser I am currently using. (If you really want to hold on to that  1994 World Cup t-shirt Nate, speak up now)
• A box of books to take to school
• A box of kitchen and dinning room stuff for the swap table at the landfill.
• Some low quality and mid- quality rugs
• Whatever you would classify that mirror thing with hooks as.

Isn't it convenient that just as I was  lamenting that I was past the point of having large quantities of stuff to get rid of, I all the sudden have two extra rooms worth of crap that can be thrown out? Just when you thought you knew where this was going, I throw you a curve ball. JJ Abrams has nothing on me.

I've decided to try my luck at selling some of the bigger ticket items online before I just give them away for free- even though I'm pretty sure that in the end I'll be "compensated" by having someone else take them off my hands.



*Update: 2/5/2012: This is my carload of stuff. All the "big" stuff (TV, VCR/DVD player, printer, etc) is still in my room. I'll keep it for a week to see what, if anything, I can get for them. So far, my best offer is two beers at Penuche's in Keene. Depending on when you go, that equals out to somewhere between $1.50 and $4.  Also, I really need to wash my car.