My suitcase bound for the States has the following items:
22 empty coke cans
5 lbs coffee
5 lbs sea glass
4 years of my boys artwork from school
1 baggie of teeth lost by my children since 2008
2 sepia maps of islands in the Caribbean
2 unframed prints
What do you mean this doesn't look anything like YOUR packing list!?
An explanation? If you insist...Tho, if I begin by telling you I am visiting our storage unit (where all our household goods have been vacationing these few years) some of these things might make a little more sense.
22 empty coke cans:
You can imagine that an odd sort of person (like myself) might end up marrying ANOTHER odd sort of person (like my husband). I am not the one with the empty coke can addiction. I am just the enabler.
My husband is a collector. He is interested in collecting MANY things. Luckily our current situation does not provide him the kind of space in which his collections could get really out-of-hand. Having said that, over the last 4 years away from the States he has amassed an impressive amount of different coke cans, for his Coke Can Collection. He methodically pokes a hole in the bottom of each can, so as not to disturb the pop-top, & removes the coke. He & the boys then "sample & compare" the many cokes that people have brought for my husband from their travels around the world.
Anyhow, these cans are taking up valuable real estate in the kitchen cupboards - so, off to our storage unit they go! Sadly, I cannot fit them all this trip, since they are vulnerable in their empty state they have to be transported carefully. Therefore, they are in a very sturdy box in my very structured suitcase.
5 lbs coffee
5 lbs sea glass
4 years of my boys artwork from school
1 baggie of teeth lost by my children since 2008
2 sepia maps of islands in the Caribbean
2 unframed prints
What do you mean this doesn't look anything like YOUR packing list!?
An explanation? If you insist...Tho, if I begin by telling you I am visiting our storage unit (where all our household goods have been vacationing these few years) some of these things might make a little more sense.
22 empty coke cans:
You can imagine that an odd sort of person (like myself) might end up marrying ANOTHER odd sort of person (like my husband). I am not the one with the empty coke can addiction. I am just the enabler.
My husband is a collector. He is interested in collecting MANY things. Luckily our current situation does not provide him the kind of space in which his collections could get really out-of-hand. Having said that, over the last 4 years away from the States he has amassed an impressive amount of different coke cans, for his Coke Can Collection. He methodically pokes a hole in the bottom of each can, so as not to disturb the pop-top, & removes the coke. He & the boys then "sample & compare" the many cokes that people have brought for my husband from their travels around the world.
Anyhow, these cans are taking up valuable real estate in the kitchen cupboards - so, off to our storage unit they go! Sadly, I cannot fit them all this trip, since they are vulnerable in their empty state they have to be transported carefully. Therefore, they are in a very sturdy box in my very structured suitcase.
5 lbs coffee:
Our island is known for coffee. These are the bribes I offer prospective hosts in exchange for letting us have a place to stay. This limits our housing possibilities to the homes of coffee drinkers, unless there are people who have some other reason to want us around, like, say, grandparents! I also have the emergency small packets of coffee, for those acquaintances you didn't know you were going to see, but want to pretend that you were just hoping to run into...
5 lbs sea glass:
Sadly I cannot blame my husband for this one. On our last island I loved snorkeling for sea glass. After all that work it seems like there must be SOMETHING I can do with it all...one day...so, off to storage it goes!5 lbs sea glass:
4 years of my boys artwork from school:
What kind of mother would I be if I didn't hold on to these masterpieces?
1 baggie of teeth lost by my children since 2008:
1 baggie of teeth lost by my children since 2008:
Okay, fine! What do YOU do with the teeth, hmmm??
2 sepia maps of islands & 2 unframed prints:
We live in a furnished townhouse, not really a place where I want to make a lot of holes in the wall, but sometimes it's hard to resist some artwork...
When I open the storage unit, it is always a little strange. I will see all that is left from our life in the States, lurking in the darkness of a 10' X 15' climate controlled storage unit. After my eyes adjust, I will notice my grandmothers china cabinet up against one wall, filled with soccer trophies & sailboats. I will see all my red & green boxes of Christmas decorations in the way back, on top of all our bookcases filled with books. I will see beds & chairs & tables & dressers. I will see boxes upon boxes. I will see bags of cold weather clothes & yard implements. I will not be able to go in - there was not enough room to leave a path.
At the very front of the unit I will see my pottery wheel & a bottle of Patron Tequila someone gave my husband for his going-away. I will see my mothers big pottery pickle jars she used to use for flower pots. I will see my boys Red Radio Flyer Wagon, & think of those little boys I had back then, who are not the same as the big boys I have now. My heart will ache & my eyes will tear up & I will hurry to get on with what I came for.
As I stand in front of all this STUFF, which we seem to be able to live without, but we somehow still need, I will see the little piles of hurriedly placed items that I have brought on other trips home - clothes, shoes, pottery; things that we put into this 'waiting room' for that mysterious 'one day' when we return & take up our 'old lives' again.
And there on top of a bag of clothes will be a big wooden fish, casting an accusatory eye on me for leaving him in this strange place last December, away from the sunny Caribbean island where he was carved under a palm tree. Wondering what will become of him.
And I will think: you & me both, fish. You & me both. Because by the time that fish comes to be removed from that storage unit, he will be part of our 'old lives' as well. This fish, along with this sea glass, these 22 coke cans & these teeth for Heaven's sake, that I have brought over the ocean for the sole purpose of storing them together with our other belongings.
Like the first cavemen who carried their fires from an old cave to a new cave for continuity, so too will we one day carry these items from this 'waiting room' to spark our 'new lives', whenever & where ever they might be.
Wondering, as always, what might become of us.
2 sepia maps of islands & 2 unframed prints:
We live in a furnished townhouse, not really a place where I want to make a lot of holes in the wall, but sometimes it's hard to resist some artwork...
When I open the storage unit, it is always a little strange. I will see all that is left from our life in the States, lurking in the darkness of a 10' X 15' climate controlled storage unit. After my eyes adjust, I will notice my grandmothers china cabinet up against one wall, filled with soccer trophies & sailboats. I will see all my red & green boxes of Christmas decorations in the way back, on top of all our bookcases filled with books. I will see beds & chairs & tables & dressers. I will see boxes upon boxes. I will see bags of cold weather clothes & yard implements. I will not be able to go in - there was not enough room to leave a path.
At the very front of the unit I will see my pottery wheel & a bottle of Patron Tequila someone gave my husband for his going-away. I will see my mothers big pottery pickle jars she used to use for flower pots. I will see my boys Red Radio Flyer Wagon, & think of those little boys I had back then, who are not the same as the big boys I have now. My heart will ache & my eyes will tear up & I will hurry to get on with what I came for.
As I stand in front of all this STUFF, which we seem to be able to live without, but we somehow still need, I will see the little piles of hurriedly placed items that I have brought on other trips home - clothes, shoes, pottery; things that we put into this 'waiting room' for that mysterious 'one day' when we return & take up our 'old lives' again.
And there on top of a bag of clothes will be a big wooden fish, casting an accusatory eye on me for leaving him in this strange place last December, away from the sunny Caribbean island where he was carved under a palm tree. Wondering what will become of him.
And I will think: you & me both, fish. You & me both. Because by the time that fish comes to be removed from that storage unit, he will be part of our 'old lives' as well. This fish, along with this sea glass, these 22 coke cans & these teeth for Heaven's sake, that I have brought over the ocean for the sole purpose of storing them together with our other belongings.
Like the first cavemen who carried their fires from an old cave to a new cave for continuity, so too will we one day carry these items from this 'waiting room' to spark our 'new lives', whenever & where ever they might be.
Wondering, as always, what might become of us.
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