Sunday, June 21, 2009

Project 365: Day 172 -- The Girl isn't coming back and it's time to move on...

My one and only kiddo is now 21 years old, and a senior in college this fall. She has been living over 4,000 miles away in Honolulu since she started as a freshman at the University of Hawaii three years ago. After her sophomore year, she moved off campus and into an apartment, and then into a house with several roommates. Because of the distance and how long it takes to get from here to there (usually almost 20 hours, with layovers) and how expensive the airfare is, she has only been able to come home at Christmas, and in the summers. This year, she opted to stay in Honolulu for the summer, to take some summer classes and work in a dive shop. And she finally admitted that she never intends to live here in TN again, and will likely stay in Honolulu after graduation, provided she finds adequate income.

So, with that sad revelation (cause, hey--I miss my kid!), which if I have to be honest, wasn't a surprise, I have decided that her room in our tiny house has square footage too valuable to only be used 3-4 weeks out of the year. Well, ok, it's actually been used as a storage room when she's not here. But now, it's going to be my new office! It's slightly bigger than the 3rd bedroom which currently houses my office and craft supplies. And it gets better light, since it has two windows instead of one.

So the daunting and overwhelming task of clearing out that room has begun. There are boxes of books and clothes and old stuffed animals stored in there. Our luggage has been stored in there. All the stuff that I hesitated to put in the attic because of the heat/humidity/cold/dust/spiders/mice...fortunately, I think the mice and the spiders are a thing of the past now. And a lot of those books and clothes just need to be donated instead of me hanging onto them. Because let's face it--I will never be a size 3 again. So I must overcome my packrat tendencies that I apparently inherited from my grandmothers on both sides, and get rid of all this clutter. After all, it's the Year of the Purge, right? And I have woefully slacked off on that goal over the past month or two.

So here's a bunch of stuff that we have to keep until Parrish visits at Christmas and can decide what she wants to keep and what can be tossed. But it's all going to live in the attic until then. This is the third time in the past week that I have filled the hallway with boxes for the attic.

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