Everything new is old again.

So, I have begun packing up my house in preparation for the whole sale/move thing. The problem I'm having is that I just didn't realize how much stuff I'd accumulated after living in the same place for five years. Back in school and for a few years after graduation I was moving every May, like clockwork. As anyone who's followed that schedule knows, moving time is a great time to just clean up and throw out any crap you don't need/want anymore. But when you're not moving once a year, stuff just kind of ends up getting pushed to the back of closets, thrown in the attic, piled in the garage, generally filling up space wherever it can fit. My house has become like the Blob, it just sucks up anything that gets near it. Except for the fact that it's immobile. But I digress. This is like my annual '95-'01 May moving cleanup, but just multiplied by 5 years of immobility. This is not going to end well.

So I guess having this much stuff makes me a pack rat? Well, if that's the case then I'm going to have to change since it's inevitable that whatever condo I can afford in the area I want simply will not hold the amount of stuff I already have without literally bursting open and spilling forth random clothes, DVDs, CDs, books and whatnot. Hell, I'll be lucky if couches and queen-sized beds don't start bursting out of the seams, too. Cross your fingers and hope I don't move in above you or you're in trouble. Trust me. I refuse to rent a storage unit just to fit some of this stuff, either. So away it's gotta go. I'm thinking I'll finally make good on that New Year's Mission to eBay a bunch of stuff. Lord knows, it'll be the first mission I actually keep. (Remember the 2-drink minimum one? As yesterday and well, every time I've gone out since January can attest to, that's a gigantic whoops...)

You know the other weird thing that happens when you live in the same place for too long? You lose entire years in your memory. Seriously. I tend to judge time frames by when I lived somewhere, what job I had, and how those two things related to whatever significant events happened at those times. I honestly couldn't tell you anything significant for me in 2002 or 2003. I remember Amy getting married in the summer and Mark getting married in fall '03, obviously, but I really couldn't tell you anything of significance in my life personally during those two years. Hell, I can't really tell you anything insignificant, either. Good thing I didn't have a blog back then or I'd be able to go back and read it now and go, "damn, I really wasn't doing much of anything back then, was I?" And then I'd get all bummed out that I'd wasted two years of my life not doing much except drinking and hanging out. (Hey, wait a minute...) Now that I think about it, I can tell you a couple events from then, but those belong in another post entirely. Trust me on this one. Now that I think about it, I can't even remember any CDs I loved in '03, and that's usually how I remember things like that. Strange... I guess alcohol really does kill brain cells. Who knew?

So yeah, moving. Anybody wanna loan me some cash so I can buy the condo before I sell the house? That'll make this whole process a lot easier, you know.