bin #8 oh dear the randomness

This bin seemed to be a collaboration of things that I felt were at some time very valuable. ha. who am i kidding, isn't every bin that?? lol. Some of the things there's no bones about it, i'll never get rid of them. Surprisingly though i was able to toss some things from this bin, but i'm not going to mention them. Mainly because i've let them go and i dont want to bring up scary feelings :) 

I found a lot of things that I had kept from my old toy box, and some things from when my Great grandma and grandpa McKinley passed away. I think matthew worried this would be a bad bin for me. I kept getting things out going...NO WAY! I've been looking for this!...sure. annnyyywayyy....here's what i found.

a magic 8 ball....actually, i found 3 of these. am i indecisive?

metal hotwheels trucks

a pocket watch

 a post card from israel, one from egypt

one of my first jewelry boxes from my aunt denise

a 58 caliber bullet from "the skimish of snow's pond" circa 1862... 

how many of you have a bullet from the civil war? thats right. 

wait. after throwing out my US history notes i've currently forgotten when the civil war occurred. I know thats awful. im not smarter than a fifth grader.

my dads college id, voter registration card, and fraternity card... 

who knows why i have these.

half of a BFF necklace...

 not sure who has the other half. 

man those were the days weren't they? when you truly thought your "bff" was cooler than sliced bread and you guys would NEVER be apart, pinky swear.

 a watch face, a marine pin, and a ring...

if you haven't noticed, i store all my valuables in Dutch Masters cigar boxes, haha. 

It's a granny gomez thing :) i guess it was probably a tony thing actually. 

i miss them both.

 a picture of my mom from junior high....

ok does this look like me or my sister? 

because i seriously can't go a whole week without some one saying, "oh my gosh you look so much like your mom" or "so this is your sister?" {pointing at my mom} or some other stupid comment. 

Lets take a vote....tara? or erin? look alike???

 *dear mom, i like your jumper. lol.
ETA: I found this as proof... 

 

glow worms....

i can't even tell you how flippin' excited i was to find these suckers. 

i mean, i totally knew where they were but i just never get them out to play. 

I dont know where they came from but my dear friends 

these bad boys will NEVER be purged. end of story. 

they are beyond awesome. 

'turn off the lights....and they glow' AND they are finger puppets?! 

does it get any better? 

I'd also like to point out their cute little ears 

which i chewed on as a child...see the missing chunks? haha.

 an autographed Reds baseball... 

autographed by no one famous. 

i remember my dad yelled at me for ruining the ball by having someone 

'not as famous' sign it. dang, there go my millions.

a fisher price doctors kit... 

hmmm maybe some one had a feeling? 

only when i was little and played with it i was "nurse erin" 

hey i know one cool little 3 year old that has her own doctors kit like this! 

Maybe uncle Matt will let her give him a shot cause i was not allowed.

 a large bolt, from Cleveland, Oh.... 

taken off the street during my Senior Trip...thats right, to cleveland.

2 spring break cups

a dashboard hula girl from hawaii, and a lei

sand from florida, hawaii, plymouth rock, the old north bridge, walden pond, and cape cod... 

i'm an avid sand collector, do you have sand from walden pond? 

yea i didnt think so.

a cup from Fenway... 

come on the green monster? 

AND i got to put Mrs Reeves' long long long hair into braided dreads? 

ahhh memories.

 *note: very valuable plastic pink heart jewelry box from previously noted aunt denise :) located to the left in this picture.

3 more golf balls

a toy nail salon...

after MUCH debate, and one simple text to my sister to prove my very valuable point

---the nail salon STAYS. 

there will be no further discussion. don't even try. 

Matthew says its disgusting and stupid. I told T that matthew wanted to throw it away and she said "WHAT?! NO WAY! IT STAYS!! IT'S AWESOME!!" must be a girl thing. 

It has an automatic nail drying fan built into it. come on.

my scarlet letter "A" project for honors english...

i think my A was "Ambition"?? i dont know, it got tossed.

a sweat towel from the nappy roots concert at EKU.... 

the lead singer had it around his neck during the concert how could i not keep it? 

and it had a dollar stapled to it, i pocketed that.

what toys have you kept? or wish you would have kept?

Bins 5 & 6...the keeper of momentos returns

this morning had been less than productive. im currently surrounded by more stuff. this bin, not an easy one AT ALL! Why? because its full of scrapbook stuff and lots and lots of pictures, and writing from high school and undergrad. blech. im trying to purge and i thought today was going to be a really good day for me....i was in a "toss it" mood. But, now that im in the thick of it. ugh. so frustrated.

i've had to get rid of some stuff like this....
biochem notes? really erin? biochem notes. when the hell are you gonna look at those again? the kreb cycle? amino acids? if you need that as a reference what are you gonna do? thats right....your lazy bum is gonna GOOGLE it!! So just do it, throw it away. Done.

a print out of your sign? your an Aquarius....suprise! does that change how your day goes...ever?? no. toss it...ok but first i wanted to share this.... :)

my star's LIKES:  fighting for causes (how convenient), Dreaming and Planning for the Future, Thinking of the Past (you're kidding), Good Companions, Having Fun. my DISLIKES: full of air promises, excessive loneliness, the ordinary, imitations, idealistic.....wow. spot on eh? now its in print....and i can toss it! 

Have you ever read the Great Gatsby? I read it a long time ago, and i remember it being really hard for me to read. I had to find symbols from the book and make display cards for my honors english class. I choose apparently "The Green Light" in the book. I used to be a really good writer. (man my skills have waned). Here's what i wrote...
 "...a representation of Gatsby's dream.....winning daisy's love was Gatsby's american dream. Gatsby is presented as an ordinary person determined to reap great rewards from all that he has done...just as daisy had done, the voluptuous light eludes Gatsby's grasp of sole possession...There are some things that we can not let go of, no matter how far off course they throw us. Dreams or ideas that we cling to...but if we believe wholeheartedly in what we desire, we will also eventually be rewarded for what we have worked so hard for."   

Man. If i had a therapist they'd sure have a lot to work with.

Among other things i found....my first diary...a binder that i decorated (see above)...two tea light candles that i probably took from someone's wedding...a copy of little women...a precious moments nick nack that says "a friend is a very special blessing"....the program from a friends wedding...a collage about ME made by friends...a copy of People: 200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons...newspapers from the flood of 97....

  a newspaper from when lennon was shot...all of my souvenirs from a trip to Boston in the 11th grade.....souvenirs from our family vacation to florida, with a trip to the Kennedy space center...

 an entire summer of governors scholar crammed into a plastic bag...

I found my gsp journal and one of the entries was "my 15 year gsp reunion" and oh geez....here's what i wrote....

"over the past 15years i have married my true love matthew after graduating from eku with a communications degree. i now have 2 kids, a 6 year old Brooklyn and a 4 year old boy Cole. My husband and i live in NKY still, and i work for the kentucky post as a journalist and my husband is a pilot for Delta. Before we had kids we took an amazing trip to europe and ireland-which was my favorite. One exciting thing ive done since '01 was to travel all over south america as a translator for tourist. i lived in los angelos just for fun for grad school at UCLA."

wow. total nerd. and totally different. i guess i never expected where i am now?!
crazy......i got one thing right ;)

It was orange & black so i thought it was Halloween stuff...{bin #4}

Well, I was kinda close. The first few things were halloween goodies but after that...

a light up pumpkin
a scary hand candy dish
halloween decorations
a silver tea set
a glass pitcher
a hard rock cafe luggage tag
a handful of christmas wine glass charms
a silver salt and pepper shaker set
a halloween ghost (which my mom has probably been looking for but forgot she got rid of it, and therefore i saved it!)

a kitty cat tail, set of ears, and bowtie
a wooden cut out of a black cat
16 large plastic cups
a huge neon green party bin
a pumpkin carving kit
a wedding hat box
a camera case
a six pence
left over wedding invitations
a ginormous pair of ladies undies
our wedding programs-which i have painfully thrown out (ok i kept a few but threw out most of them)
a poem written for us by a dear friend

The wedding stuff brings back wonderful memories of our special day. That stuff is really hard for me to get rid of. I did throw a few things here and there but for the most part, the wedding stuff stayed. Its hard. i know i've said that a lot. i promise i'll get better.

things i found while purging....{bin #3}

So over the years (my many years--as my 26th birthday is looming) I have collected and kept lots and lots of STUFF. I used to organize is and keep it nice and uhhh??? neat?? But when I got married my parents decided my stuff needed to go with me. Ok that was fine. So i put it in the basement of my new house. Well, then this whole thing happened where I had to merge four years of college stuff, with all the stuff at my married house, with stuff from a condo, and move it all into a UHaul. From there my precious stuff had to ALL some how fit into one TINY crawl space. Hmmm.

Now as you may or may not know, the prospect of moving again to another home to start my residency, is quickly approaching and my Stuff is looming. and growing. and spilling out of the crawl space. More than that, it has taken over our "office" which has never been used as such since we moved in three years ago. We both have known for awhile that I needed to downsize my stuff.  ((All you family members that pick on me can stop celebrating and singing the hallelujah chorus!))  I'm not sure, unless you have some hoarding/pack ratish characteristics of your own, that you can understand how hard this is for people like me.  My stuff, isn't just stuff.  It's me.  Pieces of me that I've kept over the years. It's not easy at all, but I've made the decision to do it. So now that I'm on a rotation that has given me a little time to myself, I've told the hubby, that i'll do at least one, maybe two, bins a day as long as he gets them out of the crawl space.

{{I'M PURGING}} there i said it, and its now in print. I've been doing good so far, just ask the hubs. I'll let him share with you, all about the AWESOME bin that I that we went through last night. OH EM GEEE! We were literally laughing soooo hard we had tears in our eyes. That my friends, is why I keep these things, to relive my moments. For the laughter, and the tears that they give back to me. I thought i'd continue to share my purging journey with you guys--you'll help me out right?! walk me through it?! Trust me you all don't want to miss this either because, well the best way for me to put it is....I'm a freak. Yup. It's true.  I keep the. most. random. things.

My bins as packed full as they may be....are virtually time capsules in themselves. Treasure chests of memories. So judge me all you want. I'm purging and laughing, and cherishing all the precious crap that i've kept over the years :) so onward to bin number 3.  Don't worry this was a GREAT one to start with....

a set of rabbit ears for a tv

a nextel cell phone

a pet rock named "rocky" given to me by my sisters cat, flower.

a cookie monster key chain

a canister full of pogs and slammers

a "Complete Home Medical Guide"

21 computer disks for which i no longer even have access to a pc with a disc drive

porcelain doll stands

a Santa doll

some orange pop lip smacker chap stick

a picture of my grandparents

a silk drawstring bag full of matchbooks

a leather coaster that i made

a frank sinatra cd

a coaches whistle

two painted flower pots

my favorite rose oil from the renaissance festival

a funnel for a flask

$0.52

a DZ turtle ornament

A university of Kentucky baseball cap

a bag full of replacement pegs for my lite-bright

a pair of old glasses

two rolls of 35mm film, one a B&W roll

a crocheted angel

one sock

an mp3 player

2 clinque bags

a beaded earring kit

my entire flattened penny collection

$7.18 in encore rewards for Off Broadway Shoes

and among a few other things....

a pebble, 2 marbles, one dice, and a button.

I'm guessing your response right about now is one of a few options....

1. you are staring at your computer. dumbfounded.
2. you've gone through the list going wtc? are you serious? oh man, she's got problems.
3. you've been saying Oh! I remember that, or I had one of those oh i want to look for it....
4. you've been bored out of your mind, and agree with that freak statement.
5. you've had a good laugh, a really? and a huh? and maybe an omg?! but you're pretty impressed with my progress and hope I make it through the other 20+...oh who am I kidding...50ish bins left.

So which one are you?  Please leave a comment, I'm gonna need the encouragement. (oh and I'd love to know what number you are! lol)

eta: Oh man. "Cleaning out bins is fun!" 

haha that's the text message i just found myself sending to my sister. 

I almost....ALMOST...used the word liberating! 

What is happening to me....ahhhh NO!! NOO!! 

I'm turning into my mother. 

ah crap.