I've spent more time again over the last few days trying to box up this over-stuffed kitchen. This morning, I was clearing an upper cupboard where I've housed thermos bottles and such - rarely used, but when needed are very nice to have. In the far back corner of the very top shelf, I found something I'd long forgotten about and it brought back so many memories. Memories that are good and yet add to the melancholy I always experience at this time of year. This is what I found:
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| Christmas Cup |
When I first came to this dry land, I met Jane. Jane was the step-mother of my then fiance'. His dad had died by just a couple years before, and she was a widow and still single. The fiance' and I remained together for about three years after I moved here, never getting married, and going our separate ways - shortly before Christmas 1975. Jane and I had become, and remained, quite close over the years. We spent a lot of time together and holidays were very special. Especially for me since I had no family here of my own. The ex-fiance and I remained friends too...eventually.
One of our Christmas traditions was to decorate the tree, which included all those OLD, now VERY OLD and dangerous, type of string bulbs - the real ones that could get hot and burn your tree down and your house along with it! We had such fun decorating the always heavily flocked, and very tall tree listening to Christmas music in the background and sipping wine or a hot toddy. (That was my BC days.) One year she bought this coffee mug for me, and I guess somewhere along the line the handle broke, but all the pieces are there; I suppose I planned to fix it. The mug so depicted what we went through with those lights.
I miss those times, they were fun but more than just missing the time, I miss the relationship with her and the family. Over the years, we've followed our own separate paths and don't speak with each other often and see each other far less. I think the last time we saw each other has been about 12 years ago. She's moved out of the immediate area, so getting together would require a drive of several hours.
She has a birthday coming up next week; I'll have to find her number and give her a call.
Before I can pack up my kitchen for that remodel I keep talking about, I need to have a place to put what is packed up. We have a 3-car garage or so the house description says. There's a dividing wall between the 2-car side and a 1-car side and these pix are from the 1-car side because we use it as a collect-all-until-we-get-around-to-disposing-of-it-all room, as well as it houses my laundry 'room' and the chest freezer and some storage shelves. Sometimes, I really wonder if I DO have hoarder tendencies, because I have things in boxes that I look at and find some excuse for not getting rid of. In all fairness, there are a lot of empty boxes in here stacked willy nilly as I was gathering them up in order to put kitchen items into for storage during the remodel.
The folding chair belongs in the house. It was here because I needed to sit down while I was sorting; the back and the foot still are painful when used for extended periods of time when standing on concrete and bending a lot. That orange chair...it's solid, it's heavy, it's ugly. Have I said I'm not a huge orange fan? How many cat litter buckets do I need? Maybe they can store something? They're useful...for something. hmmm, hoarder? What about that box of college textbooks? Anyone studying deaf culture or need to learn ASL? Seems I promised to take them to our deaf ministry ahem, years ago (we get hearing students who sit in during second service in the deaf area with the interpreter, they may be interested in them).
That fan back there. It hasn't worked in years. Marty bought a part to hopefully fix it. It fried it even worse. Surely it can be recycled for the metals, or someone more capable could fix it. Oh, and anyone need an old Bell & Howell straight tray slide projector?, or a photo enlarger? Most of the boxes are empty.
All the items on the pallet, except for the empty boxes, are packed with donation to charity items, or destined for an as yet never had, garage sale. That skateboard doesn't go though, it's Nick's and for some reason it's always there and gets in my way. Maybe he should have it in his bedroom?
Ok, this side has some legitimate storage shelves, and lots of empty boxes, and some other odds & ends. The milk can? I got that from the neighbor, had/have plans for it, but it's sat here for who knows how many years. He was a smoker, and played the lottery and it has smelly lottery tickets still sitting in it! Yuck! And that's our flag too, it's too big for the holder outside, so we just rolled it up on it's pole and it sits there. I have another milk (in the first picture in a black plastic bag) that I brought home from up north a couple summers ago. It had been my Grandma's when she sold milk to the local dairy from her farm back in the 1950's.
Ahhh, here's the starting point. The cabinet on the left with the towel is teak, it's supposed to go into my craft room that has been another project for more years than I can count. My laundry stuff is on the other side of that cabinet along with the door to go into the house. The two boxes that have stuff in them? Well, one is filled with just a few of my daughter's little girl clothes and baby blankets. I know, I could take a pic of them and pass them on and out of my house, but there's something about their tactile presence, being able to actually touch and feel them, brings back those memories of when she was little, and since she lived with her dad and step-mom in another state after she turned 5 or 6, I think I'll hang onto them a little longer. The other has pieces of used sweatshirt material and denim...yeah, I still think I'm going to use them in a quilt some day.
Some day, I will get this all cleared and dealt with. Some day needs happen sooner than later. Some day we will get started on that kitchen.
