Too Much Stuff
Esther Krinitz: A guy I used to work with, Mark, went to my storytelling show for rubber ducky day. He sent me a very nice email afterwards and mentioned an upcoming lecture being livestreamed by the American Visionary Art Museum about The Art and Story of Esther Nisenthol Krinitz. Krinitz was a Holocaust survivor who created fiber art pictures (appliqué and embroidery) depicting her life in Poland before the War, her life in hiding during the war, and events afterwards. For example, she went to the Majdanek Concentration Camp and looked through piles of shoes there trying to find her mother’s. There’s a total of 36 pictures, which are on exhibit, along with other artwork telling stories about immigrants. The talk was by her daughter, who runs a foundation focused on using art to tell these stories. It was an interesting talk and nice to see the pictures, though seeing them in person is better. (I saw them several years ago at the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles.) I should try to find time to see it again when I have something to do in Baltimore.
Speaking of Mark: We also set up a time to talk on the phone a couple of days later. Mostly we discussed things about adjusting to retirement and he picked my brain a bit about travel. He was rather amused when, as soon as he mentioned that his wife had signed up for a crafts class in western North Carolina, I knew exactly what school it was at. Anyway, we had a nice conversation and I’m glad to be back in touch with him.
Trader Joe’s is Evil: I am easily amused, so I got a kick out of going to Staples because I needed staples. I also bought a Spanish dictionary there, since it was on the clearance table for two bucks.
Anyway, Trader Joe’s is in the same shopping center, so I stopped in there for a couple of things. There are certain things I buy whenever I go there, e.g. strawberry vanilla yogurt, almond milk (cheaper than anywhere else), and green chile and cheese tamales. I made the mistake of also going to the nuts and dried fruit section. They have chili spiced dried pineapple again, after a long time without it being available. But the reason I say they are evil is that I also bought sesame honey cashews and pecan pralines. Both of those are delicious - and thoroughly addictive. Very much in the category of things I should not buy because I will eat way more of them at a time than I should. Sigh.
Living Room Archaeology: I’ve been spending a lot of time recently on what I refer to as “living room archaeology.” My biggest barrier to clearing out all this junk is dealing with memorabilia. This goes back to my mother having had me save the program from the very first show I ever went to in what she referred to as “my memory box.” Well, 55+ years later, what had been a small box has turned into multiple file drawers and more stuff overflowing into stacks on the floor. Throw in the current trend of many theatres not giving out printed programs anymore and printing out the programs takes multiple pages, those end up particularly thick.
Now, I keep a journal in which I write about every show (play, musical, concert, etc.) that I go to. And I know that, when my mother died, nobody wanted any of what was in her memory box. I had hoped her playbills would be worth something, but it turned out she had actually torn them apart and just saved the front cover and the list of cast members.
So I am on the verge of deciding to get rid of this stuff, but it’s a hard decision to make. I am postponing it until after I get through filing and discarding a bunch of other things. For example, I really have no difficulty shredding old credit card receipts - especially when I find one from a car rental in, um, 2009. And, no, I don’t need a bus ticket from Rimini to San Marino from 2014.
Why is this so bloody hard?
Speaking of Mark: We also set up a time to talk on the phone a couple of days later. Mostly we discussed things about adjusting to retirement and he picked my brain a bit about travel. He was rather amused when, as soon as he mentioned that his wife had signed up for a crafts class in western North Carolina, I knew exactly what school it was at. Anyway, we had a nice conversation and I’m glad to be back in touch with him.
Trader Joe’s is Evil: I am easily amused, so I got a kick out of going to Staples because I needed staples. I also bought a Spanish dictionary there, since it was on the clearance table for two bucks.
Anyway, Trader Joe’s is in the same shopping center, so I stopped in there for a couple of things. There are certain things I buy whenever I go there, e.g. strawberry vanilla yogurt, almond milk (cheaper than anywhere else), and green chile and cheese tamales. I made the mistake of also going to the nuts and dried fruit section. They have chili spiced dried pineapple again, after a long time without it being available. But the reason I say they are evil is that I also bought sesame honey cashews and pecan pralines. Both of those are delicious - and thoroughly addictive. Very much in the category of things I should not buy because I will eat way more of them at a time than I should. Sigh.
Living Room Archaeology: I’ve been spending a lot of time recently on what I refer to as “living room archaeology.” My biggest barrier to clearing out all this junk is dealing with memorabilia. This goes back to my mother having had me save the program from the very first show I ever went to in what she referred to as “my memory box.” Well, 55+ years later, what had been a small box has turned into multiple file drawers and more stuff overflowing into stacks on the floor. Throw in the current trend of many theatres not giving out printed programs anymore and printing out the programs takes multiple pages, those end up particularly thick.
Now, I keep a journal in which I write about every show (play, musical, concert, etc.) that I go to. And I know that, when my mother died, nobody wanted any of what was in her memory box. I had hoped her playbills would be worth something, but it turned out she had actually torn them apart and just saved the front cover and the list of cast members.
So I am on the verge of deciding to get rid of this stuff, but it’s a hard decision to make. I am postponing it until after I get through filing and discarding a bunch of other things. For example, I really have no difficulty shredding old credit card receipts - especially when I find one from a car rental in, um, 2009. And, no, I don’t need a bus ticket from Rimini to San Marino from 2014.
Why is this so bloody hard?