I Visited My Stuff Today

I was just driving along, on my way to the latest of our temporary homes (family this week).  I knew I didn't have my key, but when I rented the storage space, i had given them my spare key to hold in the office, just in case.  It took them a while to find it, organization is not their strong point.  But they finally produced my spare key and I was in.  I pulled our beach cart, laden with chairs and other beach stuff.  then I took out two dining room chairs.  In a minute, I was in there--lighting a battery-operated lantern, unpiling boxes, only some of which had been marked, and some of which had fallen to the ground.  One box i didn't open sounds suspiciously like broken glass.

I could tell where my books were, but couldn't reach them without doing a wholesale restacking.  But I know they're there, and a few of their titles are visible through the see-through plastic tubs that hold them (Yes, I put all three forms of there there, i.e., they're, there and their).

I found two of our coffee makers, and brought one out with me.  Our host home (the place we are mooching this week) is not normally inhabited by coffee drinkers, so I have been obliged to drive to Starbucks each morning, and I'd rather watch the sun come up over the trees.  I found  my spare eyeglasses, too (important because i am blind without them).  I saw box after box marked kitchen or pantry, but knew nothing more of their contents.  I forgot to look for my pocket notebook, but I think it was buried with the books anyway.  I found our bathroom scale, but left it there, vowing to exercise more and eat less for the week we are without a home.  Yes, ever the optimists, we are convinced we will be in a rental by week's end, with a pending contract on a place to buy.  

We're easy when it comes to getting us to make an offer on a home.  Once it grabs us, we are amazingly uncritical.  We no longer see the drawbacks, only the assets.  So, we have our eyes on another villa, just where we wanted to be, with a glorious view, a screened porch, a balcony, etc.  We note the weaknesses (an aged air conditioning unit, a bathroom that needs updating, and some flooring we'd need to replace, but we see ourselves there, and that is all it takes to sell us.  Once we see that we are sold.  There are probably some realtors who don't understand us, but I know we are much easier to sell than the note-takers.  You know them, they have a clipboard, and they are furiously making notes as they walk thru, so they can remember the house they toured, but never looked at because they were too busy writing.   

But back to my stuff, I found my exercise ball, and brought that out along with a bottle of mouthwash (don't ask).  The ball has stick-figure drawings of the exercises for which the ball is used.  My personal trainer drew these, and I'd be lost without her stick-figure illustrations.  I've given her a binder with dozens of her stick-figure assignments provided during our sessions so i'd remember how to do each exercise.  They really ought to be in a book.

So, I didn't reduce the clutter and overcrowding, but I am sure my stuff was glad to see me, at least I felt welcome and, for just that moment--alone with my stuff--almost as if I had a home.