Wal Mart: The Ultimate List Tester
Ever since I wrote the last entry about the things we brought with us, I've been kind of obsessing about the list. It probably isn't all that interesting to anyone but me, but if I ever document my gypsyness, it will come in handy.
So it's been bugging me that I keep seeing things around here that didn't get on the list.
If you're going to do an inventory, it has to be ACCURATE.
It also seems a little deceptive to my 1.5 readers. Here I am claiming to have moved here with those items and those items only, but there's more! Things that didn't even seem big enough to make the list, but there they are, attached to me like Velcro.
In the spirit of complete and transparent disclosure, here's my addendum.
One small, blue vase. It has a flower in it beside my bed.
2 Placemats
4 Cloth napkins
Broom and dust pan
Iron
Cleaning supplies
Mattress pad
2 Decorative pillows
The Mexican blanket that is usually in my car
Tool box
Box of paperwork/files
Shoe shine box
Tiny St. Joseph statue (resides on the kitchen counter since 1995)
My piece of petrified wood that has been in my kitchen window sill every place I have lived since (I think) 1971.
Basket that holds bills, etc.
Cork screw
Travel mug
Ice cream scooper
Manual can opener
Colander
And I'm not counting the individual pieces that make up "the computer", like printer, mousepad, speakers, keyboard, etc. etc. More and more individual items.
As I mentioned, Kitty is now an indoor cat. No more days of roaming around her front door, chasing butterflies, stalking blowing leaves, and sleeping in the sun in the lawn chairs. No wanting to enforce boredom, we bought her some toys, and a carpeted stand that has a little tray on the top that she can sleep on in front of the living room window.
Now the apartment has pet stuff scattered around.
Ususally, I'd rather stand in a center traffic island and breathe exhaust than go to the Wal Mart. But the one lamp in the living room just wasn't enough. We read, and reading requires more than mood lighting. Especially since D.H. likes enough light to land jets or perform surgery when he reads.
Where do you go for cheap, disposable stuff? Wal Mart, of course. So I went there.
As tempting as another shower rack and a new laundry basket were, I stopped with a $10.00 , disposable floor lamp. No wonder monstrous container ships arrive here every day with more and more and more and more things.
On the way home, I drove past a Big Lots. Depsite knowing better, I stopped there, too.
While looking at their cheap, disposable stuff, I found one of those big Italian style posters you see everywhere. The ones in bright colors with circus characters eating spaghetti or drinking champagne on them. It was 50 cents. 50 cents!
I bought it to put on the mantel and have some color in the white, white apartment.
Like metal shavings to a magnet, objects attach and the list grows.
The idea of traveling lightly through the world seems to be in direct opposition to the need to feather a comfortable nest. The amount of things I've left behind in the last few years as we've roamed about the country could, and has, set up several other houses. I've trimmed and trimmed, keeping only the most sentimental or practical things that make up our home.
Of course toting around hundreds of pounds of books isn't very practical and only slightly sentimental.
Strange town, new people, none of your familiar things, forces you to find some other way to feel "at home".
Darling, darling Husband sitting in his chair, reading the paper in full light, watching Monday Night Football while some lasagna is baking in the oven and smelling oh so good is a good start.
We may not know where we are, but we're always at home with each other.
So it's been bugging me that I keep seeing things around here that didn't get on the list.
If you're going to do an inventory, it has to be ACCURATE.
It also seems a little deceptive to my 1.5 readers. Here I am claiming to have moved here with those items and those items only, but there's more! Things that didn't even seem big enough to make the list, but there they are, attached to me like Velcro.
In the spirit of complete and transparent disclosure, here's my addendum.
One small, blue vase. It has a flower in it beside my bed.
2 Placemats
4 Cloth napkins
Broom and dust pan
Iron
Cleaning supplies
Mattress pad
2 Decorative pillows
The Mexican blanket that is usually in my car
Tool box
Box of paperwork/files
Shoe shine box
Tiny St. Joseph statue (resides on the kitchen counter since 1995)
My piece of petrified wood that has been in my kitchen window sill every place I have lived since (I think) 1971.
Basket that holds bills, etc.
Cork screw
Travel mug
Ice cream scooper
Manual can opener
Colander
And I'm not counting the individual pieces that make up "the computer", like printer, mousepad, speakers, keyboard, etc. etc. More and more individual items.
As I mentioned, Kitty is now an indoor cat. No more days of roaming around her front door, chasing butterflies, stalking blowing leaves, and sleeping in the sun in the lawn chairs. No wanting to enforce boredom, we bought her some toys, and a carpeted stand that has a little tray on the top that she can sleep on in front of the living room window.
Now the apartment has pet stuff scattered around.
Ususally, I'd rather stand in a center traffic island and breathe exhaust than go to the Wal Mart. But the one lamp in the living room just wasn't enough. We read, and reading requires more than mood lighting. Especially since D.H. likes enough light to land jets or perform surgery when he reads.
Where do you go for cheap, disposable stuff? Wal Mart, of course. So I went there.
As tempting as another shower rack and a new laundry basket were, I stopped with a $10.00 , disposable floor lamp. No wonder monstrous container ships arrive here every day with more and more and more and more things.
On the way home, I drove past a Big Lots. Depsite knowing better, I stopped there, too.
While looking at their cheap, disposable stuff, I found one of those big Italian style posters you see everywhere. The ones in bright colors with circus characters eating spaghetti or drinking champagne on them. It was 50 cents. 50 cents!
I bought it to put on the mantel and have some color in the white, white apartment.
Like metal shavings to a magnet, objects attach and the list grows.
The idea of traveling lightly through the world seems to be in direct opposition to the need to feather a comfortable nest. The amount of things I've left behind in the last few years as we've roamed about the country could, and has, set up several other houses. I've trimmed and trimmed, keeping only the most sentimental or practical things that make up our home.
Of course toting around hundreds of pounds of books isn't very practical and only slightly sentimental.
Strange town, new people, none of your familiar things, forces you to find some other way to feel "at home".
Darling, darling Husband sitting in his chair, reading the paper in full light, watching Monday Night Football while some lasagna is baking in the oven and smelling oh so good is a good start.
We may not know where we are, but we're always at home with each other.
posted by Karen | 6:52 PM
4 Comments:
Am I your one or your .5 reader? Just curious, because with my growing gut, I think I count as at least three.
-donna
Your gut isn't growing, Curtainrod is! Just makes you bigger, too. It won't be long now until you're carrying baby around in your arms.
Some of my best purchases have been at Wal Mart. tsk tsk.
Diaper Head
I think if we all had to post a list of every item we owned and had to update it on a weekly basis... we would all have less. You don't realize how heavy "possessions" make you. Seems that when I have the time to purge, I don't have the motivation and when I am motivated...I don't have the time.... What's to become of me!
Denna
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