Thing 46: 20000

Ah yeah, that's right, J's book. I think he bought it because of the octopus on the cover; he doesn't remember. I'm bettin' he didn't decide he needed to read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea any time recently. Written in 1870, translated from French. I think I recall a ride based on this book at Disney World? I was young. I do remember the long road trip, in the stationwagon, German adults up front and me and my brother sweating in the back. Me trying to pretend I was on some exciting adventure alone. My brother refusing to be ignored and finding creative ways to be annoying.

Things 44 +45: Palahniuk + Smithsonian mag and

We had the book "Haunted" by Chuck Palahniuk. We think one of J's parents left it after reading it. J just read it. He said it tried to be as gross, creepy or disgusting as possible, hence, I am not reading it.
From my family, my Pop had a free Smithsonian magazine subscription to give away. I guess this has happened previously. This time it's my turn. Very sweet. Maybe he wanted to send me a reminder of my time in the Balt-DC area. Lynx are awesome.

This is how I always wanted life to be II.

Met my oldest best friend and her husband in Springfield at the Fort for lunch. It was my idea to set them up many years ago. Now they've been married like 13+ years and have 2 kids. German sausage lunch and beer at a place I went with my parents when I was a kid, cool. And so cool I could be lunching with my friend on her 40th Bday. And on my way to meet this friend, had some extra time so stopped at an even older friend's place of biz, a local paper. He was at Mass, but saw his mother for the first time in maybe 15+ years. This friend's parents were the coolest. They let us hang out on the porch, they didn't stop us from smoking, they joined our conversations about music, art, philosophy, literature and when their son started a band, he was allowed to turn his bedroom into a practice space. Yeah, it was awesome.
Then decided to stop at a thrift store I used to frequent. Been wanting a ski vest, but didn't really want to spend any money on one. Spied this red one (pic) and when I tried it on and put my hands in the pocket - found $12 and change. The vest paid for itself and gave me left over $ to get the Eastern Birds field guide my husband had just wished he had this am.

Things 41 - 43: dvds and book

More contributions from J. Thank you husband. Couple dvds and re-read used book. Yup, there ya have it. Nothing has been removed from the free pile, but I haven't really been promoting it in any way. What with no one reading the blog and not forcing friends who visit the shop to peruse it. I do have a new idea, but don't know if it will result in a shrinking pile. We have a collab with a cute, energetic, young photographer. I'm very optimistic about it, though it's still early. She will get needed experience, resume building, photos on up-and-coming website and we get much, much, much better pics of merch. Feels like it could be a great thing. And maybe she wants something from the free pile. We'll see.

Thing 40: Two Bad Ants

We still have boxes of art, art supplies, a few boxes labeled "customs" and one "vinyl scraps" in the back room of the shop. J saves lots of stuff. I do too, but I'm neater about it. That's no brag. Just a fact. And it ain't better, just who I am. This is something I used to be pretty embarrassed by. I always envied those chaotic, messy, wild, creative types. It intimidated me sure, but I still wanted to take an HST type fear and loathing road trip or tour with the Butthole Surfers (when they was crazy). So back when I was embarrassed by this, this is the sort of thing that would embarrass me. I came home one day to find my housemate in my bedroom with a friend opening the drawers of my bureau. The housemate wasn't embarrassed, she simply explained she was showing her friends my organized drawers because she is in awe of them. Huh, maybe I didn't have to hide my "tidy little secret". Same very clever housemate once replied to boys at the bar asking us what our hobbies were, "she cleans and organizes". Again, the kind of thing that would have embarrassed me, or felt like someone was teasing me, but this housemate helped me get over the embarrassment. I be neat.

So, here is why I can be in awe of the messy. My husband made a back drop for a little movie he was making for a class. He had some dayglo yellow cardstock and was cutting out little diamond shaped stars to paste to the black bristol board night. Teeny tiny bits of dayglo yellow paper covered the basement coffee table. I absentmindedly sweep them into my hand while we're talking - ya know, to clean up. Husband says, don't throw those away, I might use them. Use them? Was he kidding? He was not. He is so sweetly sincere. Sure enough, he glued said scraps to cardboard in a swirling pattern. Damnit, he saved scraps and then actually used those scraps. I will never question what he saves or disposes of again. Seems chaos and clutter inspire J. One day all the clutter looks different and an idea comes to him. I mean, we're inspired by tons of stuff, but I confess, I find myself inspired by order and neatness.

Two Bad Ants was in an art box. J said I could add it to the pile. He saved it because he liked the illustration. He still does, but he can part with the book. Things have their time.