...and now, i am stuffed

the sunday after thanksgiving and i am stuffed. no more turkey or leftovers for me for awhile. (at least until christmas!) i've had a lovely weekend down in santa cruz. hardly did a thing - which was exactly what i wanted to do. actually, that's not entirely true. i spent most of yesterday taking down boxes from the garage to help dwight 'can you please get your shit out of here' basilius make more room for other stuff. this seems to be the year of de-junking - which is fine with me. i threw out tons and tons of paper, old photos, class notes from college, random toys and posters that once held meaning for me but now are only yellowed and tattered. there were a few boxes i could have cleared out even further, but i just haven't the time to read every single card or note passed in secrecy in the 7th grade - so i kept them. one day, i'll drag these out again an look through them. or maybe my kids will. or (more likely) maybe my dad will just throw them out. to be honest, i wouldn't really know the difference. there are only a few things i really value - a book of fairytales from my childhood, highschool yearbooks, old diaries from the mid-eighties, the baby blanket my mother made me, my holy cross uniform.

i really am paring my life down to the basics - so that what i carry with me, is pretty much what i own and care about. 5 plastic tubs in my dad's garage, 7 boxes in my attic in the UK - 3 suitcases of clothes in san francisco - and that's ME. of course there's my butcher block and my couches ... but slowly i'm removing myself from those, so that, once again, they are simply objects. no more. no less.

but i am looking forward to getting back to boston and investing again. not in the materialistic sense, although of course, with the sales of this weekend, and 'black friday' who can miss the bargains that await? (linens and towels and blenders OH MY) ... but more for the opportunity to be somewhere for a longer haul. perhaps the butcher block was less of the 'adulthood' symbol i once thought and more of a symbol of 'permanence'.

so now back up to the city. to get back into the routine ... to get to the gym to get rid of this gravy boat floating just above my hips.

hope thanksgiving was wonderful whereever you were ... including the brits, who so kindly celebrated the holiday in my absence!