closet cleaning

I'm cleaning out the closet in our computer room so that we can start using the space better. I'm also clearing stuff out with an eye toward getting the house ready to show to prospective buyers. Perhaps this spring or summer, if the stars are aligned in our favor?

Anyway, I'm finding clues to some ways I've spent my time over the past 10 years. I hate seeing how time is zipping past me at the speed of light! It's scary. I'm also sad to see clues to interests and activites of mine that have fallen by the wayside.

First I found a plastic bag with two good dictionaries in it. Francesca gave/loaned? them to me when I helped her do some proofreading a few years ago? It was a children's book about estuaries, if I remember correctly. One dictionary has "Property of Geography Dept. Lerner Publications" written in it. Whoops!

Then there is a nice fabric zipper bag with an AFL-CIO 50th Anniversary 1945-1995 insignia stamped on it. It is full of information about how to do effective organizing, and labor law related to this. It if from a conference I went to in Madison in the mid 90s when I was a volunteer organizer for OPEIU.

Next I found a bag with "are you lost in the Medicare maze?" printed on it, then the phone number for Senior LinkAGE Line in Minnesota. Sometime after Maggie was born and I was adjusting to not going to a job every day, I saw a notice in the Star Tribune about a need for volunteers to help seniors with medicare issues. Since I had spent way too much time figuring out complicated insurance crap at my job at HP, I thought the volunteer work would be a good match to my skills. It was, I enjoyed it and I miss it. I gave it up some time after Frank was born because I just didn't have time or energy to do it well.

Then there is my clarinet that I've had since 6th grade. If I open the case and breathe in that woodwind smell I'm immediately transported back to Mt. Vernon Middle School band room. Glad I'm not there, but wish I could remember how to play this thing.

Then there is my old black leather bag I used to take to work every day when I was a 9-5 gal. I must have used it recently for something, because there is a bag of baby wipes in it. And a newsletter from the Oblates of St. Benedict at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville. I took the newsletter from Barb's place recently since she doesn't read it. She is a benedictine oblate, and I hope that I will be one some day too. But no time soon of course, for obvious reasons!