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Subtitled: Swapping crap or just being done with it.

I wish there was a forum (not really, but for sake of argument), for stuff that Sucks, but will eventually Rule. Cleaning my home falls into that category. I've felt like I was in one of those maze labyrinths. Lost in a sea of shit.

Wow! Wow! Wow! I have so much freaking shit! Especially with the fact that I am now finally sorting through some of the stuff that was stored at my Pop's house. Jeesh, how can one person own so much crap? There was no room for a blinking roommate--until now--and moving would have required a full scale crane at the side window. *shudders*

Since November, I've thrown away 16 bags of paper trash, i.e., mags, newspapers, cards, letters, programs from Fox performances, tickets from concerts, notebooks from school, journals I don't want....blah, blah, blah. It wasn't as bad as Jackie Onassis' cousin and her daughter, but, you know.

This week alone, since I've been well again, and so can therefore delve into this mess...I've taken 7 loads (albeit in my tiny little 99' Miata) to Goodwill. Clothes, stuffed animals, kitchen utensils, extra woks, duplicate pots and pans, glassware, more clothes, old purses, VHS tapes, DVDs, odds and ends of silk flowers, cat toys and brushes, shoes....shoes... Most of the clothes, purses and shoes have been saved since the early 80s. A lot of the stuff was businesswear that won't look professional anymore...too dated. Ditto the purses, and shoes.

It's like here's what I did from 95-2001: I basically updated my entire wardrobe with professional (just in case) and casual pieces, that take up a reasonable amount of room in a closet and dresser drawer. Then I held onto stuff that I never wear, on the theory, that since I can still fit the stuff...what if I hit utter catastrophe in my life, and had worn out all of my good clothes, and had nothing to wear but musty old, not even trendy 80s business clothes? Not likely...And this way, with all of that crap gone, if I ever did have to move in a hurry, I'd definitely not waste my time running around in circles trying to guess what I want to take as the bare minimum.

So while I've been moving all of this stuff, I found the best thing to do was to move it all toward the front door, which means the living room. The living room floor has been covered with crap. Boxes, bins, gardening tools, comforters, pillows, clothes hangers, mags, books, half of everything in my kitchen. Trying to figure out what could go to whom as a gift, and what can go downstairs in the hallway as junk, and what can go to Goodwill or Plato's Closet, or Rag-O-Rama, was like playing a game of Sudoku, and fitting in where all of the pieces lay that fit that particular destinations puzzle.

Saying goodbye to all of it was even harder, but my goal is only to have exactly what I need from here on out.

And my question is: If when I moved out of my parent's house, I vowed never to become the packrats they became....what happened? Is it genetic? I was so neat from 89 to about 97, so organized, and then it slowly went to shit. Around about 2001, everything was lost in a sea of junk. My friend who helped me move some of it yesterday while my blinking car went back to the shop AGAIN!... {aside: I've wondered since visiting Italy in 2002, if I brought back a 'water sprite', because water follows me everywhere! Clogged air hoses in the trunk, and frozen water, hence frozen trunk lid; clogged air hoses elsewhere resulting in condensation after $1600 of repairs for other shit; three floods all told in the building in which I live...dude, that's too much water.}... his buddy told him he needed to throw out everything he hadn't touched in a year. His place is as bad as mine. Birds of a feather. Except some of his junk is highly fascinating to me...

But then, one person's junk, is another person's treasure. I hope somebody enjoys all of this crap, because I am enjoying not having it. It actually makes it easier to "think". And I'm not down with having a junk swap. NO MORE JUNK. FINITO.

Now, if I could just manage to make myself part with about 100 more books...

My mind is made up...not like my bed, which is a mess.

I've gone threw smaller bouts of the "get rid of the junk phase" but since I do still live with my folks ninety percent of the junk I'd like to have totally parted with ended up in storage in the garage because up until phase one of the junk cleaning most of said junk were old toys and my parents just didn't want to part with them. I think its because their parents didn't keep anything of theres once they were older and didn't want them anymore. Anyway, the junk I went through took like sixteen garbage bags and who knows how many storage bins to go through. This is excluding the clothing. What's scary is it was all just one room of shit. How the hell can that much stuff fit into a relatively small space and there still be room to move let alone walk?

Anyway, congradulations on the removal of stuff. I'm looking forward to that magical day when I move out of the folks home and can just leave most of mine there for them to deal with. Sure that's a bit mean but they would be otherwise offended if I didn't. I hope the apartment clean up continues to go well.

On a side note, I have this theory that most of the junk collecting starts with "nick-nacks" which are usually gifted to people by other people that don't have the slightest idea what to give you and "bath crap" just seems totally unfitting.

--Jami

--Jami Yeah, that's gonna sting in the morning.

Uh yeah. I've got lots of that stuff. All kinds of little statues, Beanie Babies, decorative soaps that look like crystals....which brings me to my large crystal collection that I amassed 5 years ago. All of the quartz I dug up myself in Arkansas, but the other little crystals take up so much room. Still, those I won't get rid of, because my girlfriend just did a crystal/Reiki healing on me, and it worked spectacularly! I'm sold on my crystals again! Thank God I didn't give those all away...though I have given some; but that is the nature of crystals- they just like to be given away.

But besides that, everyone who knows me knows that I like frogs. So they give me frogs. And I love my little frogs. They are all over the house. Well....there's only nine of them. They used to each have names, but I've since forgot. Then there are journals of poetry and such. And yarn. *shakes head*

But here's the nice thing: My friends love me when I clean out my apartment because they get stuff for free! But I have to draw the line at giving away my 'koziol' dustpan shaped like a leaf with a squirrel's body for the brush handle, and a "bushy" little tail. Even though I'm not particularly interested in remembering the person who gave it to me, I just can't seem to part with it. I'm keeping the dustpan. :-)

My mind is made up...not like my bed, which is a mess.

But besides that, everyone who knows me knows that I like frogs. So they give me frogs. And I love my little frogs. They are all over the house.

This is a tangent but when you mentioned loving frogs and having little frogs all over your aparatment I couldn't help but think of my cousin and one of his ex-boyfriends. My cousin collects frogs so there are like ninety million of them all over his house. His ex collected snowmen so year round the house would be this freakish mix of semi-Christmas crap and frogs. I still find it kind of disturbing to this day, and I'm glad the Snowman Collector is gone, the dude freakin' annoyed me.

Figured I'd throw that in. I don't really know that much about chrystals and birth stones and such. I got curious after reading your post on amythest and started looking stuff up on my birthstone. Pretty damn fascinating.

--Jami

--Jami Yeah, that's gonna sting in the morning.

This is a tangent but when you mentioned loving frogs...

Girl, you have my permission to step off topic. Who am I? In fact, I'm hardly ever on topic. But technically speaking, we were talking about getting rid of "crap" and "stuff". Frogs and Snowmen qualify. You know, I don't think a friend who collected snowglobes would wierd me out, but someone who collects snowmen, makes me feel about the same way as if I were thinking about someone who collects those cat clocks with the swinging tails, or if they collected statues of the Headless Horseman. Creepy! At least it wasn't Precious Moments crap. Sorry...I'm a hater of Precious Moments.

Yeah...soooo... a lot of people seem to collect frogs. My ex-boyfriend's best friend's mom collected frogs, and they are all over the restaurant they used to own. It's part of the scenery! Frogs for everyone! Yay! I love frogs so much, that one year as a twentysomething living at home, I made about 30 origami frogs, and origami boxes for them. I intended to make 1000, like the crane thing for healing...but I stopped. It was so much fun though. It was an origami pattern, where the final task was to blow up the butt of the frog, so that he expanded. Kinda like making origami water bombs. Yeah, yeah I know that sounds very wierd. And it was. My mom laughed her ass off at me, and took my frogs into work. She had them all over her desk for a while. It made her happy, and I guess whether we get off tangent or not...the key is, can we smile?

So, totally off subject: I went to see Dave Chappelle's Block Party. It was so funny that I almost croaked. Ribbet.

I got curious after reading your post on amethyst...

Well check this out. I've been sick. Again. My girl Ashley offered to do a Reiki/crystal healing. All the pain was gone when she finished. *pauses for effect* I had totally gotten to a very bitter point. The Reiki and/or the crystals helped a lot. She used a lot of green calcite, moss agate, kyanite and amethyst.

And check this out. Lepidolite is full of lithium. People make elixirs (water tinctures) with the stone, and just like aluminum can leach out of a soda can, the lithium leaches into the water, and can be used to treat mood swings and bipolar disorder, with fewer side effects than the lab shit.

And check this...Petalite, Sugilite, Smoky Quartz, Melanite ( a form of garnet), and Azeztulite are used to treat cancer.

Yellow apatite, ametrine, and citrine are used to treat CFS. I have CFS. I started wearing a knecklace made of amethyst, ametrine, and citrine long before I knew that they were used to treat CFS, just because I felt drawn to it.

I felt drawn to a piece of Apophyllite and found, according to Judy Hall, that it is "considered the stone par excellence to assist in Reiki healing." I saw a piece of Aragonite at B &J Rock Shop, and couldn't understand why I wanted so badly to buy it. (I didn't btw...) It heals Reynaud's Disease. My girlfriend who did the Reiki healing on me, has a friend who has Reynaud's, whom I'd just met the night before....and I was inexorably drawn to that stone. Go figure.

There's got to be some truth to all of this. I'm down with exploration, because traditional medicine ain't helpin' my ass. But moving on...the crystals are just so pretty. They look lovely, and I've always loved rocks. I wanted to go to Arkansas with Dan and them to dig this year again, but I won't be able to...Ashley is going though, and Dan got her a ride since she doesn't have a car. She's going after she gets back from Sedona. I can't wait to hear about her trip. I told her that if I can go later in the year, I'd love to. I've always wanted to go to Sedona. Road trip.

I keep getting this "hippie feeling" that the reason I've had all of this illness, is so that I can learn to heal myself, and then to heal others. A guy told me years ago that I had incredible healing ability, but had blocked it for some reason. So you know, I was telling Ashley not to use any red stones on me because I'd done some Pranic Healing on myself from a book description, and I'd visualized red light. My whole abdomen was on fire from it. I quickly visualized white light, and found in the book later that red light was contraindicated for the situation. There has to be something to all of this stuff...and I have all these books on crystals and all of these crystals already....so I guess, when I get done cleaning I should get cracking.

So, what's your birthstone? *gets pencil ready*

My mind is made up...not like my bed, which is a mess.

This post was edited by rosyxxx on Mar 12, 2006.

*finally gets free time that isn't spent doing homework or sleeping*

Creepy! At least it wasn't Precious Moments crap. Sorry...I'm a hater of Precious Moments.

I am a serious loather of all things Precious Moments so no offense taken. Their big asss eyes creep me the hell out. But anyway, the snowmen sent me on this totally bad trip and last Christmas anytime I saw one I started to twitch remembering the horrible mixture and the flamboyant, gossipy, "I watch way too many reality shows" nature of that guy and...

I'm gonna stop there. Its for the best. Anyway, I freaking love doing Origami but I always manage to forget how exactly to make things. Its sad, but I don't really remember how to make those cute little shirts. Heh. Some things just don't stick with me I guess. The frogs sound cute with little blown up butt. I'd probably try and find a way to make them "fart". Go big huge immaturity streak!

So, totally off subject: I went to see Dave Chappelle's Block Party. It was so funny that I almost croaked. Ribbet.

I really want to see that. :)

Wow. That's all I can say about the big huge chrystal story. But I've got one huge curiosity. Everytime I own a piece of hemitite it breaks. One friend told me it had something to do with my nature and the nature of the stone clashing and such. Not sure how accurate that is though it was a long time ago. Oh, and my birthstone is the Imperial Topaz. The site I found it on had a bunch of other stones listed for November, but I went with that one since my mom and grandmother are both Novembers and have decided that it is indeed our stone. Not to mention its pretty. *has a slight vain streak, attributes that to being a Sagittarious*

Oh, back to the topic of clutter, I was digging through some stuff and found a Mardi Gras thong. I don't remember how I got it though as I've never actually been to Mardi Gras. And now that I'm thinking of it, I managed to lose the damn thing again.

--Jami

--Jami Yeah, that's gonna sting in the morning.

Yeah, Precious Moments stuff can be so creepy, but if you dont like the 'big eyes' you probably won't like Blythe dolls either. ;P

On the subject of Dave Chappelle's Block Party, here is a joke I stole from the movie: Have you heard the one about the industrious prostitute?.........She had a vagina surgically attached to the outside of her left thigh, so that she could make some extra money on the side! *snorts*

Not to mention how funny his story about the 'Ha-Ha Pizzeria' was....you should watch the movie first chance you get!

Wow. That's all I can say about the big, huge crystal story.

Well, you know me, hippie, hippie, hippie, hooray! :-D But I think the hematite breaking can also just simply be due to the fact that it is sometimes a very fragile stone, especially when carved into rings and pendants and such. It's not always metaphysical in explanation.

You wonderful Sagittarius you. Imperial Topaz, huh? When I wanted to get married that's the stone I wanted for my wedding ring. Not too keen on diamonds. Anyway, this is what I have on Imperial Topaz (read it for leisure purposes, or whatever floats your boat!):

acts like a battery and recharges spiritually and physically, strengthening faith and optimism. It is an excellent stone for conscious attunement to the highest forces in the universe and can be used to store information received in this way.

It assists in recognizing your own abilities, instills a drive toward recognition, and attracts helpful people. This stone is beneficial for those seeking fame as it bestows charisma and confidence with pride in your abilities while remaining generous and open-hearted. It assists in overcoming limitations and in setting great plans afoot. In healing, it regenerates cellular structures and strengthens the solar plexus, and is beneficial for nervous exhaustion and insufficient combustion of nutrients. It treats the liver, the gallbladder and the endocrine glands. It is to be positioned on the ring finger, solar plexus and brow chakra.

This was taken from Judy Hall's book.

Oh, back to the topic of clutter, I was digging through some stuff and found a Mardi Gras thong.

Interesting. O_o. Thongs have been a very consistent topic of my daily conversation as of late. I'm not sure how you got that thong either, but if you find it again, you could, once and for all, make a pilgrimage to the holy "drunken site", and wear said thong while streaking down the street in red Keds screaming: "Let your skin breathe!!!!" Better yet, I could do it for you. Heh...

Anyway, nice to see you, and have a "fantabulous" day. {Word usage courtesy of Van Morrison.};P

My mind is made up...not like my bed, which is a mess.

From this point on, I've made it a point to aquire a piece of my birthstone that isn't set in gold. Hm, my grandmother actually has a rather large piece of I. Topaz that my mom brought home from Korea I think. Gotta love open markets and such. I'm not too big on diamonds either, by the way. Small ones set with other stones like Sapphire or Ruby are nice but other than that they tend to look rather gawdy.

Now, as for thongs, if I ever find it again I'll send it your way. I get a rather vivid mental image of me attempting the skin breathing run pnly to get to the nearest reflective surface and vomit. Just isn't pleasant...I seriously need to do something about this low body image thing. But that's a tangent.

Have you heard the one about the industrious prostitute?.........She had a vagina surgically attached to the outside of her left thigh, so that she could make some extra money on the side! *snorts*

Heh, heh, heh. =D That's definitely worth checking out. Oh, the big eyes thing isn't really the problem. It's that they're big and shaped like water drops with massive pupils. -twitch- Besides, I'm more of a mask collector, that cuts the eyes out all together.

--Jami Yeah, that's gonna sting in the morning.