Friendships that build your life

I know that on the surface I am what you would call a sociable person.  I meet people with enthusiasm, listen avidly to their tales and ask all sorts of questions, enjoy laughing and kidding with them, and try to keep the tempo upbeat.  I'm also open and frank, I'm not shy about giving my opinions when asked to, and I can tell stories and relate a multitude of humorous anecdotes from my life.
All of that is well and good, but the truth is, I don't get a chance to play that role very much.  Usually, I'm more of a recluse.  I go to work and come home.  That's it.  On the weekends I usually have tons of housework to drudge through, as well as one or two translations to work on, and at any rate, even if I have the time to go out and socialize, I end up opting to just stay home and hang out... feeling that it would take too much effort to put on that other face and become that other person.
Last weekend was one of the most unusual, socially-fulfilling weekends I've had in a looooong time.  In three days, I had the rare opportunity to re-establish the bond with three different - and each in her own way wonderful - friends.  And it all came together so beautifully!

During the week, I had to call Marbar about something and as we were talking, I realized that it had been so long since we'd seen each other.  She's one of the first people I met in Mexico; her husband was Car's boss for a long time, and we used to go on great trips together to the Caribbean, and different places.  She's been like an aunt to all my kids, and she has this knack for stepping in with the solution just at the right moment. Though we've grown apart over the last few years, whenever we talk, it's like we're still right back there at the beginning and everything we talk about has a link to the things we've shared in the past.  In short, she knows me as I was when I crossed the threshhold and started my life in Mexico.  Recently, she too has become a widow and has found it hard, so when I called her, I suddenly said, "Let's go out for a glass of wine together sometime!"  And she agreed, and we settled for that Friday, and I asked her to name the place and she did (I'm totally ignorant about places to go, as I rarely go out!).

That same day, I checked my e-mail and there was one from Urs, another good friend who used to be my boss, inviting me to her annual chiles-en-nogada get-together on Saturday.  Feeling honored at receiving this invitation, as she and I have barely seen each other for months and months, I accepted with great enthusiasm.  I thought it would be wonderful to have the chance to spend a bit of time with her after so long and I resolved to bring a good bottle of wine along to the dinner. 

Just after I had RSVP'd her to say YES to her invitation, I received an e-mail from another friend - Pam - who was my first best friend.  You know how you go to elementary school and make friends there, but then, when it's time to go to Jr. High (or middle school as it's now called) you find yourself alone again, in a different school from the one your friends enrolled in, and you must start all over. 

Well, that's how it happened that I met Pam.  She came from a different elementary school so we met during the first week of Jr. High.  We became best friends almost immediately, in all the ways that teenagers do - talking for hours on the phone, spending the night together, going on long walks after school, or visiting at each other's houses (mostly I went to her house, since both her parents worked and we could have the house to ourselves so to speak).  She introduced me to music, poetry, critical thinking, and many other things I was eager to learn about.  I think that for her, I was the lightness she wanted and needed as she had passed the childhood state and saw Life as serious business, while I still enjoyed being a child.  I was exuberant and innocent, always ready to jump into something new, or take a dare, or be the clown.  For me, she was the teacher, as she showed me that serious side I knew existed in me, and helped me bring it out and develop it.  And of course, we both loved to write and that was the bottom line.  Writing and sharing our compositions, poetry, etc. was a big part of our relationship.

So, I received the e-mail from Pam saying that she was coming here!  She would actually be here on the day of the chiles en nogada!!!  Luckily her plane would arrive late in the afternoon, so I would go visit her at her hotel on Sunday morning.

What an extraordinarily enriching weekend I had!!!  On Friday evening, I discovered a new restaurant - small and cozy, decorated with an abundance of plants and wood, with the tables set out on an enclosed patio, where music played softly and animated conversation swirled to the rhythm.  The food was reasonably priced and very tasty, the micheladas were excellent, and of course the company couldn't be beat!  We jumped from topic to topic, leaving some unfinished, only to return to them from another angle.  We said good-bye with many a hug and promises to get together again soon.  Curiously enough, when I drove off, I remembered that we had never even gotten back to the subject which had sparked off the invitation in the first place!! 

Marbar with Carm on the beach - '92

On Saturday, the chiles en nogada were fabulous!!!!!  There were 20 people there, and most of us knew each other to some degree... and good vibes flowed as easily as the wine!   I got a chance to meet a composer whose song I recently heard on the radio and loved!  You can hear it here (number 7 was the one I heard on the radio, but all are great):  http://www.zombra0.freehall.com.mx/ We talked for some time after the meal and he promised to let me know when any good live music events (of this type or others that we talked about) came to town.  I also finally got a chance to re-establish my connection with Urs, who is such a delightful and generous person, who has and carries out one great idea after another.  She really knows how to live her dreams, and her enthusiasm is contagious.  She always makes me feel like I know what I'm doing even when I may not!  She always sees something beautiful in me that I've seen but never acknowledged myself.  She is a person one can't help but love and admire. 

Urs at last year's chiles-en-nogada (weather was the same this year!)

And then it was Sunday and I took the bus to the big city... saw a corny movie on the way, and didn't even protest when I had to get off the bus before the end of the movie.  Then it was a lengthy subway ride, though luckily without having to change lines, and then a 10-minute walk to the hotel.  Lo and behold, when I got to Reforma, which is the huge central avenue, I encountered an aerobics class in full swing in the middle of the street, with at least 50 or 60 people following the movements of the leader, and cyclists having a leisurely (or speedy) ride up and down the avenue... NO CARS!!  Music, laughter, people in the streets!  Totally fine.

As for my meet-up with Pam, what can I say?  How many kilometers did we walk for the next 10 hours, up and down streets, in and out of subway stations, shops, the zocalo, the Grand Hotel... with the weather allowing us to enjoy being outside, and the Sunday easiness acting as a relaxing background for our trek. Our last meet-up was 6 years ago for a day in New York, where she was living at the time, and I came away from this meeting as full of friendship as I did the last time.

So, here's to good friends - whether we see them often or seldom, one thing is irrefutable:  Good friends make life something personal and true.  Family does it too, of course, but good friends are the mirror in which you see yourself beyond what your bathroom mirror shows you.  When it seems like forever since you had a chance to see yourself from someone else's eyes, you need to spend time with a good friend.  A good friendship can never be truly lost, but its roots grow deeper and are nourished by a night out for a glass of wine, or a home-cooked dinner together, or a meet-up to close the distance that normally separates you.

Chums!

Time's getting short - as usual.  Somehow though, I knew the right moment would present itself for me to write this blog - so here goes:

 They came about 10 days ago.  They arrived and it was as if we had seen each other only a few days ago, and not the 15 months it had really been.  She was still my beautiful darling Pao and he was as always the strong and handsome, supportive and easy-to-please Andre.  They were ready for action the moment they touched ground it seemed.  Hardly a moment to chat, take a look around and it was time for them to get ready to go to a wedding.  From there, they would be going to another wedding.  We'd be in contact by phone - we thought - though as it turned it out, it took quite a bit of experimentation to make our phones accept each other as cell-mates!  (international codes and all).  Meanwhile it turned out that I had an unexpected gig myself and, since Carm and Sam came with me, we were all gone that first day, so we practically didn't see each other at all!  On the second day, I asked André to come with me for more recording and he was so accommodating - he went with no expectations or conditions... just enjoyed it and it was a nice "rato".  We also stopped to buy supplies on the way home, and when we got there, Pao and Carm had cooked, Anto and Sam were cleaners and we had a nice lunch together.  The rest of that day Pao had commitments with friends and Andre hung out with Anto and Sam. (I of course was translating) Then it was Monday and my regular work-week demands took over for me.  Everyone else had stuff to do to... besides, André went to pick up their friend Jorge from the airport in Mexico city where they spent the day.  Pao got over her jet lag... and so the week began.  She rented another car (all ours were either in use, or of doubtful reliability for big trips) and they made day trips to places up to 2 hours away by car, coming back to the home base each evening. So the week passed.  Until it was Saturday morning and we started on our journey to Merida and the Caribbean.  It began well enough - started out only an hour.later than planned..But the rain settled in early on to accompany us most of the way and when the motor decided to get cantankerous, we had to stop.  Here came an interesting pause in the trip.  We managed to drive the van until a gas station and pull in under a roof to check things out.  There we stayed while Sam conversed with Lu by phone and together they worked out all the possibilities of the problem until coming up with a solution.  Sam got his first taste of near-electrocution which both energized him and sobered him to the dangers of tinkering with the motor when you're wearing someone else's 'leather' gloves (they weren't really leather you see!).  But in the end, he figured it out and fixed the problem and a scant 5 hours later, we were on the road once more.  Since reaching our destination the same night was out, we decided to stop for a grand dinner (having eaten but chips and cookies all day) after which we would look for a cheap hotel to catch some winks, and get on the road early the next morning.  The dinner turned out to be totally yummy, relaxing and cozy.  We had no trouble finding the place, getting a parking space and washing up in the bathroom.  The food was delicious and certainly "hit the spot" as they say.  So we were ready afterwards to get out of Villahermosa and head for Frontera, where we'd wait out the night in a little roadside inn.  Weeelllll.... that turned out to be the low point of the trip.  Talk about a HIDEOUS hotel!!  And it was supposedly a 3-star hotel! Very depressing at first sight, and you basically had to close your eyes and just walk into the room, take a quick shower (with your flip-flops on) and shake out the sheets and gingerly lie down and hope for sleep to come quickly.... which it did in my case.  So that the next morning, before 5 we could be up and about and on the road by 5:30.  There in the pre-dawn fog, André took the reigns to drive us thru the grim pot-hole-ridden stretch between Frontera and Ciudad del Carmen, (sorry you got that gig André, but you came through the experience with flying colors!), then there was more relaxed driving from there till Champotón, a stop for brunch of shrimp cocktails on the beach, and then, on to Mèrida.  We got there in pretty good time, even with the erroneous signs that kept saying Merida - 51 km. for about 51 km.
Seeing Lu, it was like old times with the whole family together, although Anto isn't with us this trip.  Lu had us laughing ourselves inside out with his zany interpretations, stories, observations and impersonations of people and events from the real to the outer realms of the unreal!  He also took us to eat unbelievably greasy food, where the flies and mosquitos were so thick he had to set up a mosquito coil to ward them off.  But it was Sunday evening, so we took what we got, and then there was a walking tour of downtown to compensate the after-dinner sluggishness, and André at least got some great photos of that - I keep trying to get them to come out with my camera, but still don't always manage to program it right for the different light conditions.



  The next day was super cool - a drive out to visit 3 hidden cenotes.  It was quite a journey, most of it made by sitting in a little cart pulled by a horse over an ancient track running straight through the jungle for 18 kms.



 There are 3 stops - each for a dip in a different cenote - all of them lovely, fresh and cold - and with entrances you look at dubiously... in one place, there was a hole in the ground with a ladder going straight down - maybe 20 or 30 rungs, and you could barely fit through the hole with your backpack.  When you got to the bottom it was so dark you couldn't see where you were walking.  But in every case, I just went to the platform and jumped to the depths below where the water was icy cold and totally inviting.  Of course you can't touch bottom in these cenotes, so you are basically floating, dog-paddling or downright swimming the whole time you're in them, unless you can find a place to cling to on the rocky sides of the cave.  At any rate, a totally enjoyable day - dios bo ti (Mayan for thank you) - with time out for beer and chips, and later a good shower and meet-up with cousins for a dinner in an outdoor cafe in the balmy evening breeze on the main avenue with delicious "cheladas" and tortas ahogadas, with good conversation and lots of laughter.


Last night, more of the same, but today, oh today.... today, in a few minutes I will have to say good-bye to Pao and André.  They're going to Quintana Roo and the Caribbean and we are staying here to visit nearby beaches in Yucatán.  They're equipped with sunblock - be sure to use it guys! - mosquito repellent (Jorge, with luck there won't be moscos on the beach) and chile habanero readily available.  Meanwhile, I have to reckon with the inevitable good-bye scene, and I hate saying good-bye when I'm the one who's staying.  It's always easier to be the one who leaves.  You know you're going somewhere new for more adventures, whereas the one who stays can only remember the good times and miss the ones who left.  I will truly miss them.  I think I've had the most wonderful moments with them ever.  Actually exchanged several mutually heartfelt hugs with Pao, and she and I are not usually the hugging type.  I hope they both know I enjoyed every minute with them, even if I was tired out from too much jiggling around in those "trucs" or even if the heat had me totally floored... just having them around made everything wonderful.  I will miss you guys and here's hoping your trip continues with more great photos, great food, delightful adventures, and a turquoise ocean to swim in.  
  

When things go wrong - Inertia and the domino effect

You know how it is when things go wrong?  It starts with little things, a bit of aggravation here, something vexing there, then something that pulls an actual groan from you, and suddenly you realize the dominos are doing their sequential toppling act.  I recently got to that point of trying to chase them down and stop the one that would stop all the others, and suddenly I saw the light! 

It's not a matter of catching them from behind and stopping them; the dominos of Life will topple on through infinity!  What you need to do is get a bit ahead of the domino that's about to strike, sidetrack it by changing its angle, and start a new path in the zig-zag! 

Before I go any further with this blog, I want you to know that what you are about to read is the result of the delvings of my mind during my time alone with myself.  I have always been the kind of person who needs to define everything, have a clear reasoning of what, why and how things are.  The question of how to stop the chain of things going wrong began to plague me when I first perceived it as a chain.  What follows is the process I went through as I formed my own definition of the problem and then reasoned out the solution. 

Okay, so, having slept on the idea, I woke up the next morning with refreshed determination to get out of my rut.  Naturally, when the dominos are toppling in the things-going-wrong scheme, the theme running through the process is inertia, skepticism, disenchantment... (need I go on?).  So all I had to do, I realized as I drove down the silent early-morning streets, was angle Inertia so that it would bump into Will Power, which would then hit Belief instead of Skepticism, bypassing Disenchantment altogether and leading to ... Anticipation maybe? I pondered on the feasibility of it all in terms of my present reality.

Okay, sounds good in theory, I thought, as I headed out of the parking lot on foot with my umbrella warding off the light drizzle.  But too pat.  How can I really make it work? And it was then, while walking to my first class under the soothing rhythm of the rain, that the realization hit me.  All I needed to think about at this point was Will Power.  I mean everyone has will power. So if I have it, all I have to do is use it to overcome inertia.  Surely I can do that.  I can mentally control the degree of Will Power that's needed! 

Ah, so wait a minute.  Mind, then, is also an important domino in this chain!  I mean, even before applying Will Power to any reliable effect, you need to be aware of the need itself! In my case, for example, I had to be aware of things going wrong before I could consciously decide to thwart inertia!  Yes, I thought, Mind is the initial propeller!  

So there I was chanting a little song to myself as I walked to my second class:  Mind, Will Power, Belief, Mind, Will Power, Belief... (so I wouldn't forget).  But as I came out of my second class, it hit me that, while Mind is the propeller and sustaining force of Will Power, the mind itself is a fragile thing.  It's true!  While most minds are innately intact, there are many unknown factors that can suddenly cause a collapse...  

Fearing that I might be back at square 1 of the things-going-wrong chain - I took a good look at the fine line between Strength and Fragility during the 12-minute walk to my next class.  I might have gotten bogged down in the futility of it all, had I not remembered that Belief was one of the key words of the chant.  And I remembered then what I've always known, what we all know...

Belief is what keeps Mind in good working order.  Belief gets you over the scariness of seeing how fragile everything - right down to Life itself - really is.  Belief lets you handle the deal you're dealt and get through whatever it is you need to get through.  And it doesn't matter whether you believe in an entity of some sort, humankind, yourself, fate (which some people insist is a non-entity) or a combination of some or all of them... Sooner or later, everyone experiences a moment where it all comes down to their own belief.  Belief itself is the rock that steadies you when Will Power wavers.  It's the root you hang onto when Mind questions...

In the end, the conclusion I came to - which ultimately brought me great delight and allowed me to shift gears at last -  is this:  It's the domino effect of Mind, Will, and Belief - in whichever order or combination they occur - that ignites that all-important burst of anticipation.

And of course, once you have something to anticipate, you know for sure that things are going right again.

Know what I mean?

Ten minutes starting NOW!

ONce upon a time I knew what I wanted to write, I always had the ideas right on the tip of my tongue, right at the front of my brain right over the edge of my thoughts right on... once upon a time I wanted what I knew and I knew what i wanted and once upon a time I did't need to push myself so hard and I found the way without even trying because the way would just appear and I would follow it however far it went and the thoughts would come to mind and spill over and I would find myself singing and smiling and enjoying every blessed moment of a walk down the street or a swim across the pool or even if it was just sitting still in a chair, I could enjoy that too, how the ideas in my brain would lead me into the most incredible dreams and fantasies.  Once upon a time, I was always an optimist, of course I still pretty much am, but once upon a time I didn't have to stop and think of myself as being such and actually I wasn't exactly such because once upon a time I was also a terribly morbid person; I even used to do all sorts of writings that I classified under the heading of "morbidity" - how I loved that word - and I don't think it's really a word at all.  Okay, once upon a time things were like that and now I don't know exactly how they are.  Are they wild or tame? Are they true or false?  Does time keep passing? Is that the reason we say, once upon a time? Because that time no longer exists? But time exists!  Can we ever stop it?  Once upon a time was one time, but time is not divided, or I guess it is.   Yes, time is countable when it's once or twice or thrice upon a time?  Can it be?  Twice upon a time - yes I'd say I've done things twice, and sometimes - ah there's another denomination - sometimes, yes sometimes and every time.  But can something be every time?  Of course, but I'm getting off the track... Once upon a time... okay, once upon a time there was a lovely lovely lake and the woods were singing and all the trees waved at me and bowed at me and the smell of orange blossoms was so strong it brought tears to my eyes and I breathed in the scent and it went straight to my heart.  Once upon a time I walked through the rooms of this house and every plant seemed to reach out to me - and I knew I had to water each one but I was glad to feel the need and I walked up the stairs and the dust at the corners of each step reproached me.  When I got to the study I looked out the window and what I saw couldn't be described because it didn't really matter.  It was the same view as always but it was the feeling, the feeling that I wanted to keep and hold and never let go, but of course you have to let go.  There's no holding on to anything.  It all comes and goes, breathing in and out, that's life that's how time is.... a deep breath.... inhale, exhale... Time.... once upon a time.

Okay, that was an exercise for writer's block... now back to work for the real writing...

Need, Belief, and the endless possibilities

Yesterday I was in class with a student whose manner sometimes irks me.  She has amazing abilities, and yet she and I are at opposite ends from a teaching/learning perspective.  By this I mean that she wants to take the initiative when I'm trying to show her something, and she wants me to "teach" when I feel it really is her time to take the initiative.  One example:   she's talking, and I'm trying to correct her pronunciation and/or grammar, and she totally ignores me.  The only thing she will accept is an intervention in order to provide a word she needs, but she won't rearrange the sentence (once she has the word) to make it grammatically correct.  On the other hand, when I give her an exercise to do, I expect her to read it over, try it by herself and then check it with me, but no, she immediately tries to fill in blanks out loud with me saying right or wrong or just giving her the answer if she fails twice in a row...  It's a frustrating situation in which I spend suspenseful moments trying to get my bearings, be diplomatic, and basically just give in and let her have her way, hoping that next class I'll get my way!
So yesterday I was in class with Cee and she was being ornery as usual about doing an exercise, and I refused to keep giving her the answers if she didn't at least try to figure it out herself, so finally, I just said, okay do the rest for homework and for the last 10 min. of class, tell me a story.
"What kind of a story?  I don't know any stories."
"Tell me a story about your childhood, something you did as a child (practice past tense, I was thinking). You know, a funny experience in school, or something like that."
"I don't like my childhood.  I don't like to think about my childhood.  My childhood was not well."
O.M.G.  I was stumped, completely stopped in my tracks, blown over... now what?  I tried to think of something to say, and even began a sentence, like, "Okay, well then..."
when suddenly she began to talk.  "My father was very aggressive.  He never gave us money, and he and my mother split up and I began to work when I was 11."
"But who would hire an 11-yr-old girl?" I blurted out.
"I unloaded boxes at the weekend Tianguis (outdoor market).  And during the week I did different jobs.  I always had to find a way to make some money for my family.  My older sister was depressed because of the situation... she couldn't work.  I never had friends or went to parties.  I didn't have time.  I finished high school and went to a computer school and worked downtown and finally I got a chance to intern here at this company and they hired me.  So then I could get things for my family.  I bought clothes and shoes.  I got a TV for our house (we never had one before).  I paid for my younger sister to go to the university.  She's a lawyer now. Things are better now.  Every day I think how it was before and how lucky I was to be able to get this job.  But that's all.  I don't like to remember more than that.  I forgave my father and things are good now.  I tell my older sister she has to do that, because she has so much anger inside her for all those bad times.  She's still single, and I tell her she has to forgive so that she can go on with her life." 
Once she started talking, it all just sort of came out of her... I could only sit there with my mouth open as she talked about what it was like - all the time saying she never thought much about this stuff... she just wanted to forget about it.  
At the end, she said that when people want to know about her childhood, she always answers: "I didn't have one" and leaves it at that.  I told her that on the contrary, not only did she have a childhood, but it was a very unusual, interesting, even inspiring childhood.  Look where she was today!
I thought about Cee's case all day.  How singleminded she had been during her childhood.  How determined and stubborn she is today.  Her attitude is sometimes short, domineering and difficult to take but she's hardworking and gets things done and she is very kind and helpful to her family and neighbors...
At the end of the day, I picked up Carm, who was downtown, and would have to walk miles to the bus stop in the afternoon heat.  She got in the car and started in about how she needed this, that and the other - namely, money. 
And there I was thinking about an 11-year-old girl unloading boxes off a truck. 
I wanted to cry - I wanted to know that my own kids could be that resourceful if they had to be.  I wanted to know that they would want to work and not expect things to be handed to them... I wanted to know that they would find a way to get what they needed in life.  Carm assured me she knows, assured me she will find a way... assured me she plans to fend for herself in life, but just likes knowing she can lean on me now, which made me feel better.
This morning I got up and made a cup of coffee.  I looked at the coffee machine and smiled.  It broke down a month ago, and Sam fixed it for me.  He hadn't wanted to at the beginning.  He said it would be useless to try and fix it, cheaper to just buy a new one, but I told him I was curious as to what had caused the breakdown.  I told him it bothered me to junk that machine (I really love it) if it could really be used again, and I asked him if he could just kinda open it up and see...  He said it was impossible to open it, he needed a special tool... but I turned over the machine to look at it, and asked if he could do it with this, or with that utensil... I wouldn't let up about it, just kept thinking about ways to open it up... and I didn't buy another machine - we were drinking instant coffee... and one day I saw that he had opened it, and then, voilá!  He got intrigued and found the problem!  Ironically enough, by that time, I was the one who was starting to believe that maybe it just wasn't worth it, so then he had to convince me to buy the part and let him install it and fix it!  Funny how it worked out... yet perfect too in a mutually supportive sort of way!
Because the lesson to be learned here is that when you really need something, and when you believe in yourself, when you decide to do something about getting what you need, the possibilities are endless...
Bravo Cee, bravo to all who believe in themselves and are willing to do what they can to get what they need...!

Pack rat packing

Well, today we took down 4 bags of completely useless stuff.  I'm still working at it... got one box and another on the way.  In some places, I can see clearer space now, very uplifting.  The thing is, I'm trying to get all this "spring cleaning" done before Fned's visit.  Last time she was here, she threw out 7 huge bags of stuff - she assumed I didn't need - and for months afterwards, I would be looking for something only to conclude that it was one of the unfortunates considered worthless by her.  This time, I'm determined to be the one who decides...
But it's not easy to make the decision.  Take today.  I moved stuff around, tried to put the stuff I'm thinking I should toss (but not quite willing to totally give up) waaaay out of sight but still keep it.  I felt kinda foolish, stooping to such a trick, but my motto is: when in doubt, stash, don't trash.
So as of the end of the weekend, what do I have to show? 

• Two boxes of papers and books - final destination unclear 
• A large bag of wires and cables - final destination unclear
• Two large bags of clothes and blankets to give away
• One cleaned-off spare bed
• One cleaned-off window seat
• One cleaned-out hutch drawer/cabinet (but bookshelves above still cluttered) 
• Two cleared-off desks

Sounds good, but there's still a long way to go... need to get more boxes!

Packing up - a pack rat in denial

Yesterday I was substituting at one of our schools and I noticed they had a lot of boxes - the kind that all the printer/copier paper comes in.  So I asked the coordinator if I could take some home, and he had no problem with that; he only wanted to know why I wanted so many of them.  I told him I was packing, and he asked if I was moving.  I said, no, not moving, just packing to get stuff out of the way.  He asked why I didn't just get rid of stuff I didn't need - and there I was:  face to face with my own "pack-rattency". 

I tell myself I'm not so bad.  I know of others who are real pack rats... Still, when you get to the point where every room in the house seems cluttered, no matter how often you move things around to make space, you know you're in the danger zone.  But here's the thing.  I don't really want to throw things out.  I just don't want them to be in the way.  I want to know that at any given moment, I could go find the respective box, open it up, and see/touch/revive, etc. the things I don't need precisely at this moment. 

Today, I started going through stuff.  I actually did throw things away, or at least they are in bags ready to be gotten rid of.  In throwing away those things, I made room for others that can now be stored.  I still have the boxes, which is good because there's a long way to go yet.  But for one weekend, I think I did well.

To be continued...