Since I'm moving in just over a week, I've been thinking a lot lately about packing and storing my stuff.
Storage units are a strange thing. Most of my belongings have lived in one out in Saticoy for the past year and a half. Every time I think about it, it bothers me a little to think that there are people all over the world with nothing more than the clothes on their back and yet I own enough stuff to necessitate renting a garage-sized space in a creepy building with my best friend.
It was never meant to be a permanent thing. Just a temporary housing facility for my stuff in the midst of a bigger plan. But plan A didn't work out and I've been holding my off-season clothing hostage there ever since.
There's the dining room table that once belonged to my grandmother. I broke a leg off of it once when I had to rearrange in order to pull a dresser out from the farthest corner. But my mom would kill me if I ever got rid of the table, so there it sits. There's also the boxes full of kitchen supplies that I haven't touched since mid-2005, but someday I will want that never-been-used George Foreman Grill that is costing me a small chunk of change each month to keep it there. There's the boxes of memories from the past relationship that I don't want to look at, but can't bear to throw away yet either. And near the front I keep the boxes of clothes that I trade out for each new season, although I can't seem to find any of my sweaters or scarves this time around.
As for what else is filling space in my half of the storage unit, well let's just say that someday it will feel like Christmas when I open all those boxes to discover all the things that I forgot I owned and survived just fine without, but simply can't bear to throw away.
Maybe someday I'll finally settle down and live someplace where I can actually turn in my storage lock & key, unpack all those boxes, and not feel like I'd be turning right around to fill them again. Or maybe (and this is more likely) I'll finally just cave and get rid of all that stuff.
But until then, I'll just keep paying visits to my jailed belongings and occasionally bail out another pair of jeans or last winter's umbrella.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Random Thoughts Late at Night...
I pretty much don't sleep anymore. I just lay in bed and think. It's kind of exhausting, but I can't find my Tylenol PM so tonight I decided to begin transforming some of these late at night personal ramblings into a new blog. Hopefully I'll be better at keeping this one up to date because this one has a goal...to journal my "adventures" as I set off again on yet another move.
Dictionary.com defines WANDERLUST as "a strong, innate desire to rove or travel about." A friend once accused me of being this type of person several years ago when I was debating between moving to San Diego or Houston...and I guess it kind of stuck. I don't think he meant it as a compliment. But I wear that description as a badge of honor now because I like traveling and the the way it's taught me to be adaptable, love all sorts of people, and understand that the world is so much bigger than my little corner of it. (Not to mention all the yummy food I've gotten to try along the way!)
It surprises most people who know me now that I barely even moved bedrooms until I was 18, which was also the age that I first went on a plane. (Technically speaking I took a plane to Hawaii when I was 2, but that doesn't really count since I can't remember it!) I lived in the same house on Bridgeport Circle until I moved to college. And essentially, I lived in the same room until then as well. There were a few brief stints in other rooms each time an older sister moved away to college and I tried to take over her space. But those were quickly passing seasons, and I continually ended up back in the room I came home from the hospital to, much to the dismay of my 3rd sister who had to share it with me until she left for college when I was 1o.
But in the last 8 1/2 years since I left home, I've grown to love moving, traveling and flying so much that it's almost ridiculous. In fact, my parents don't even react anymore when I do things like call them up to say that I'm moving to a new state in two weeks or that I'm contemplating living in a foreign country for a few months. They've grown to expect it and simply listen with a resigned, "What are you up to now?" expression on their faces when I tell them my new life-plan of the week.
You see, since the age of 18, I've spent: 4 college years in San Luis Obispo in 4 different housing locations; 4 months living in London and traveling around Europe to 8 countries; over a year in Houston, TX which involved 3 different housing locations; brief periods in Sacramento; 3+ years in Simi Valley (4 housing locations); visits to about 13 different states for various reasons and periods of time; and short-term mission trips to Uganda, Romania, and Mexico.
And now it's time once again (as the chain hanging from my rear-view mirror states) to GO SEE what the Lord has in store for me in a new place. This time it's Charlotte, North Carolina where I'm heading to spend a few months with my sister (yep, the same one that hated sharing a room with me as a kid), her husband, and their new baby. I'm incredibly excited but at the same time very sad to leave the area, church, and friends that have been home to me for over three years now. They have truly become "home" to me.
But the wanderlust in me is itching to go... so, I'm off to "go see" once again.
Dictionary.com defines WANDERLUST as "a strong, innate desire to rove or travel about." A friend once accused me of being this type of person several years ago when I was debating between moving to San Diego or Houston...and I guess it kind of stuck. I don't think he meant it as a compliment. But I wear that description as a badge of honor now because I like traveling and the the way it's taught me to be adaptable, love all sorts of people, and understand that the world is so much bigger than my little corner of it. (Not to mention all the yummy food I've gotten to try along the way!)
It surprises most people who know me now that I barely even moved bedrooms until I was 18, which was also the age that I first went on a plane. (Technically speaking I took a plane to Hawaii when I was 2, but that doesn't really count since I can't remember it!) I lived in the same house on Bridgeport Circle until I moved to college. And essentially, I lived in the same room until then as well. There were a few brief stints in other rooms each time an older sister moved away to college and I tried to take over her space. But those were quickly passing seasons, and I continually ended up back in the room I came home from the hospital to, much to the dismay of my 3rd sister who had to share it with me until she left for college when I was 1o.
But in the last 8 1/2 years since I left home, I've grown to love moving, traveling and flying so much that it's almost ridiculous. In fact, my parents don't even react anymore when I do things like call them up to say that I'm moving to a new state in two weeks or that I'm contemplating living in a foreign country for a few months. They've grown to expect it and simply listen with a resigned, "What are you up to now?" expression on their faces when I tell them my new life-plan of the week.
You see, since the age of 18, I've spent: 4 college years in San Luis Obispo in 4 different housing locations; 4 months living in London and traveling around Europe to 8 countries; over a year in Houston, TX which involved 3 different housing locations; brief periods in Sacramento; 3+ years in Simi Valley (4 housing locations); visits to about 13 different states for various reasons and periods of time; and short-term mission trips to Uganda, Romania, and Mexico.
And now it's time once again (as the chain hanging from my rear-view mirror states) to GO SEE what the Lord has in store for me in a new place. This time it's Charlotte, North Carolina where I'm heading to spend a few months with my sister (yep, the same one that hated sharing a room with me as a kid), her husband, and their new baby. I'm incredibly excited but at the same time very sad to leave the area, church, and friends that have been home to me for over three years now. They have truly become "home" to me.
But the wanderlust in me is itching to go... so, I'm off to "go see" once again.
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