Without A Doubt

My family has definitely been afflicted with various levels of hoarding and my grandparent’s house is the pinnacle of where it began. In my last post I mentioned that my aunt, mom and I took an entire day to clean out one of the rooms in the family house. While completing this task we made two piles -- one for recycling, the other for Goodwill. Since the start (long before last week), it has been a slow and steady process.

We found countless piles of newspapers, magazines, maps from their trips across the country (a future post will give details on the journals we found from their trips that I plan to transcribe and then Matt and I intend to visit every place they traveled), chotchkies, pictures, broken things, you name it and you were likely to find it in my grandparent’s house. In addition to the vast number of items that are boxed up and ready for charity, a few things have made their way out of the house and into our own homes. I have taken a few functional furniture pieces -- the table I mentioned last time plus 2 cabinets for my painting stuff, books, knick knacks, clothing and a few very, very random items.

While in my great Aunt’s bedroom we discovered that not only was she a very religious woman (which most of us already knew) but she also had a thing for astrology, fortune telling, horoscopes and the like. When I came across this little gem it totally blew me away. I turned it upside down, over and sideways trying to figure it out and next thing I knew I was asking ‘what is this, some kind of secret fortune telling device or something?’ only to discover the glass on the bottom fill up with a triangular shaped piece of something with just one word written on it ‘Yes’. It was the original Magic 8 Ball! Cool!

The fortune teller was discovered upon one of the first visits when I also acquired some of my grandmother and grandfather’s hats. My grampa was a fedora man and there were two gorgeous ones -- a grey and dark brown. I only pull them out occasionally but every time I wear any of their hats I feel like a million bucks!

Which is exactly the reason we’ve been sorting through everything before just getting rid of it; there could be cash stashed just about anywhere. Both grandparents suffered from symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and especially with my gram, as she got older and less mentally functional she hid things. With the number of things in the house that means things could be anywhere, especially in books. It’s a nightmare.

While sorting through some of the books in the reading nook on the third floor I came across this one which my mom convinced me I should at least read before donating seeing as though I’m the Green blogger in the family. This upcoming week I have some time and fully intend to do just that. Of course I have my pick of many.

There were some books as old as the early 1800’s found in the house including some that I should have read years ago but never made the time for, even though some of which I was technically supposed to read for school. A Tale of Two Cities, The House of Seven Gables, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Three Musketeers, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, you get the picture. Well they all came home plus the complete ten volume set of the World’s 1000 Best Poems, as published in 1929.

In the den I pulled this out of a basket or a bag or randomly off the floor and just started laughing, I mean when she bought it the name was probably very futuristic sounding. Like back in the 1980’s. In fact this tube of goo might have been one of the only things we found in that house that represented that particular decade. Well that and the jelly belt that was sticky from melting. Oh yeah.


Earlier decades were thoroughly represented as we discovered by the mounds of 1960’s and 1970’s poly print fabrics. This one was in a paper bag with the thread, pattern and zipper, just waiting to be created. Not to mention the receipt for how much all of it cost; just over $10. My mom and I are going to work on this together; Mom rocks, so does the dress on the far right.

This year for Christmas Matt got me a laptop tray. Mine has a lifting, tilting top, a lip to stop the computer from sliding forward and legs that fold underneath for easy storage. Looks familiar… Of course this one is a little beat up and wood not plastic. No one needs it and I immediately thought of my Mother in law. I know she reads so this could be a perfect little giftie for her. I’m going to clean it up, paint and faux it then send it on down just because. But shhh, it’s a surprise so don’t tell!

Overall it may seem like a lot of stuff has come into my home and I’m just perpetuating the cycle of collecting and perhaps that is partially true but for the most part I am only taking what I know will be created, gifted, read, worn or used as a functional item…

In fact I asked the Syco Slate if I should throw away the Stain Master 2000 after taking the picture for this post and it responded not surprisingly:

A Haphazard Mish-Mosh of Arbitrary Madness

That, or “this is going to be a whole bunch of random stuff that has nothing in common other than it is all what is going on in my world right now which is sometimes inconsequential but always all over the place”. Guess that title would be a little too long so I’m happy with the one I went with instead. So then let’s get on with the jumbled mess I call my daily world.

First and foremost this is the last time I’ll be pimping to get as many people as possible out to the FUMC Craft Fair in Melrose tomorrow. 645 Main St 9:00 - 1:00.

All my bags


Are packed

I’m ready to go!

Now that the sales will commence and the production of all those upcycled fabrics lessens, we can finally get our house back together. It is going to seem like we have so much space in our teeny apartment and the quilt-like layer of tiny threads all over the carpet will succumb to the vacuum on Sunday during football. Yee-haw!

Recently Charmaine posted a link to a really fun site where I spent some time “yearbooking” myself into a bunch of different time periods. It made me chuckle to see myself in these different eras but what was really funny is that the 1990 photo is scarily too close to my actual yearbook picture from 1991.

How much hairspray would this take?

I always wondered what I would look like with an afro.

To bang or not to bang?

See what I mean? Talk about hairspray, ugh.

Tomorrow Matt is going to hit the road and start acquiring a trunk load of pallets so we can start construction on our entertainment center. It is going to be a whole lot of fun to watch this thing come together. Nothing like acquiring material for free to create an enormous piece of furniture. I am definitely keeping my fingers crossed that it comes out nice because he already has plans to build a bunch of other functional furniture pieces using this free stock of lumber. That should keep him out of trouble for the entire winter and then he and B can bond over manly things like sawdust and planers while S and I bond over shaking our heads at the guys but enjoying the fruits of their labor.

We Hate the Environment Here?

A few years ago for Christmas, Matt and I decided to spend the holiday with my sister in Arizona for the first time since she moved there. Seeing her at the holidays is always nice but doing so in the place she calls home was especially wonderful. All week long, even as the calendar rolled over to January, we commented how odd the weather was, noting the fact that it hit about eighty five on Christmas day. That was particularly strange since generally they are in the sixties. As a lover of all things warm I thought it was great to sit out on the front balcony and get a tan while everyone back home bundled up in winter gear, but at the same time I knew there had to be a reason for the phenomenon.

One evening out at the house of a friend we were all drinking beers and having a great time. I went to bring some empty bottles into the kitchen and aimlessly looked around for the recycling bin. When I did not find one immediately visible I poked my head back in the living room and asked if it was in the garage. My sister looked down at the ground, sighed and said:

“Yeah, we hate the environment here. There is no recycling pick up so just throw them away.”

Just throw them away. With a very heavy conscience I had no choice but to do just that.

To those of us who come from an area where recycling can be a regular part of our daily routine, it might seem strange that a city the size of Tucson would not have a pick up. Sadly not having one is more common than having one in many areas of our nation. It got me thinking about how fortunate we are in Boston, and my town in particular, that we have a separate pick up for all recyclables. Just put the blue bin out at the curb every other week and the work is done; easy. Why then do I hear things like:

“No I never recycle the cans because the cats get at them in the bins and then I forget to bring the bin out so it is easier to just throw them away.”

Just throw them away. We display blatant disregard for the planet by deliberately ignoring one of the most simple and available solutions to help it by adding to the landfills.

Then we complain about the weather. We marvel over the fact that we have already had two inches of rain in August and it is only one week into the month. We sound shocked as we discuss that in the north east we have already had over double the usual number of thunderstorms in an entire season and the season is only two thirds over. The words “climate change” come flying out of my mouth and we all nod but what are we really doing to help prevent it?

Companies that many of us would have never thought of as being environmentally conscious are starting to see that jumping on this trend is not such a bad idea. Hopefully as more of them move in that direction the trend will turn into the norm. Yes that does mean we all have to keep an extra special eye out for imposters who are just trying to make a quick buck on a product that is not environmentally conscious at all but there are some instances where the positive impact is indisputable.

For example, this morning I read about Ikea beginning manufacture of solar panels and other cleantech products. They plan to work with a limited number of cleantech startups in order to keep costs low and hope to begin distribution of the subsequent technologies into their stores by 2011. Not bad considering there are 283 stores spanning thirty nations worldwide (Nineteen US states have one or more locations and by 2009 they will add the twentieth state to the store locator list). Could Ikea be blazing a path toward a new and even better trend such as the potential to purchase an eco-friendly house and all the green solutions needed to furnish, light and accessorize it in a one stop shopping experience? Do not laugh, they are already providing pre-fab, low cost housing in Sweden and expanding their reach with this product to the United Kingdom. It is just a matter of time before the Boklok reaches the United States and we can surround our assemble-it-yourself furniture with a home of the same persuasion.

I own Ikea furniture, lots of it in fact. My mattress & bed frame, sewing cart, sofa and living room chair, bedroom bureaus and two bookshelves are all from this big box retailer. At the time I purchased all of this (about four years ago), admittedly, the reasons were not so much how environmentally friendly they were but rather the fact that they were right down the street in Long Island and I could acquire modern style furnishings for our tiny apartment and do it on a tight budget. Despite what people might think their furniture is not “disposable”. Just like anything in this world it will last as long as it is properly taken care of. Kind of like the world itself.

Arizona has an Ikea in Tempe. Perhaps once these eco-friendly solutions are distributed world wide Tucson can take advantage of their hot and constant sun and pick up truckloads of the panels to install in as many locations as possible in an effort to harness their resources instead of simply throwing things away.

Blast Me Past

On Earth Day this year I had every intention of posting a story regarding recycling that I wrote almost twenty years ago and discovered while going through old journals a few months ago. Instead, I spent more time walking to and from, ironically enough, the car dealer. My 30k service was due and the appointment just happened to fall on Earth Day which was cool because even though I could have called numerous family members to pick me up, walking seemed like the right way to get back home. Since quitting smoking I have been getting up earlier so I dropped the car at 7:30 and headed home. They called at noon to say it was done but Matt and I decided we both needed the exercise so we walked up together late afternoon before heading to the beach for dinner.


At Revere Beach there is really only one place to eat (in my mind, even though there are numerous choices) Bianchi’s Pizza. The pizza is so good that the only way to describe it is to say they must put crack in the sauce because we used to drive up there on weekends from Long Island specifically to get a pizza (Note: I know that is not very Earth friendly but luckily those days are over now, sorry planet!). I have been going there for many years and know the drill on a really warm night – call it in. It was in the high eighties so I knew there would be a line. Thinking twenty minutes would be sufficient, Matt called (because I was driving and we all know my rules of the road) and they told him it would be a forty minute wait. I am telling you, it is the best pizza in Boston. We got there faster than expected so we parked about five blocks away to enjoy the stroll up to the line about thirty deep. I will not go into the details of the endorphin rush that came while eating but suffice to say the entire roof of my mouth is peeling today from the inability to wait for it to cool off. Walking back to the car I noticed how different the beach is now.

Recently the entire area was revitalized to detract from the trashy element that had moved in and re-attract families to purchase condos in this “sketchy” waterfront local. The sidewalk had been widened replacing the angled parking that was responsible for many a blind spot fender bender. One of the best things they kept in the revitalization was the trash cans along the boulevard. Most people use them too which is great because they assist in eliminating trash from the street & sidewalk. Perhaps because it was Earth Day I suddenly noticed there are no recycling bins on Revere Beach and the trash cans were over stuffed with Poland Spring bottles. This made me think back to my little story about recycling as well as prompted us to take our extra paper plates, napkins & bottles back to the car with us to recycle at home. Here is my story unaltered from its inception; I am not sure of the actual date but I was not yet hand writing in all caps so it is around 1989.

"Everyone should recycle whatever they can because the world is in jeapordy. In this day and age the term “every man for himself” has never been more true. Recycling takes time out of our busy days. To get to recycling posts takes so much time, its easier to throw it out. Also to have a recycling truck pick up the trash, instead of dropping it off, takes $ out of the town’s people’s taxes. Finally no one likes to recycle because they are so sick of hearing that word or seeing the triangular symbol and decide not to.

The ammount of time it takes for a person to drive, or walk saving gas, to a post is not much. Most posts in the towns are w/in walking distance of each’s home. Is 10 minutes time too much to help save the very ground we walk on or water to drink? Prob. not. The trucks that come by take up even less time and the $ spent to rent the truck in my town is aproxametly ¢.06 per person in the town. Six cents is a small ammount out of a one month period. That only averages out to ¢.72 a year. That’s less than a cup of coffee costs, which most people get one of day to day. Being sick of the word recycle is natural since its used a lot. So why not use another word like reuse or return to something we’re able to use again. The other option of course is not to say it at all but just do it!

Recycling is an all around good idea. The trash prob. in this country is increasing rapidly and the only way to keep it down is to recycle or use products with biodegradable incasing. Why can’t we use the same paper cup when we have 2 or 3 things to drink in the hour? Using cloth shopping bags or paper at the supermarket is even a good way to keep it down and that’s not a very hard thing to request.

On the whole I can understand the opinions of people saying “Oh its only one gum wrapper.” However one gum wrapper for every person in this world would mean close to a billion gum wrappers. The bottom line is don’t litter and conserve where you can. Most especially however, take the 10 minutes to recycle what you can."

Al Gore, eat your heart out.

As a way to cap off my “day late” post about Earth Day I am going to respond to the tag that Chris placed on me. I wanted my other blog to breathe for a few days but I promised I would do this so here it is (sorry to say I am not perpetuating the tag, it dies here).

Fives:

Five years ago I was

1. Almost 30
2. Doing home improvement

3. Just a little less awesome than I am now

4. In school
5. Still smoking

Five snacks I enjoy

1. Chips & dip
2. Saltines & butter
3. Bananas & peanut butter

4. Oreos & milk
5. Chocolate & chocolate

If I was a billionaire I would

1. Pay my bills on time (hopefully)

2. Travel a lot more (likely for my job)

3. Get an unlisted number

4. Mysteriously become more attractive to guys who picked on me in school

5. Try to be thankful for all that I have & give back as much as possible

Some Jobs I have had

1. Office Bitch
2. Faux Finisher
3. Plastics dealer
4. Actress (just once, that was enough for me)

5. Retail Whore

Different Places I have lived

1. MA

2. NH

3. NY

4. MA
5. MA…MA…MA…MA…MA…

Five Lies
1. I wanted to answer this question.
2. My trip to Chile was the most amazing experience of my life.
3. I am really a very quiet person.
4. Skiing is the best.
5. I didn’t inhale.

On a final note I will suggest we all make a conscious effort to pay attention to our big ball of green and blue everyday and not just on the day they tell us to. Recycle. Turn off the water while brushing your teeth. Buy cloth towels instead of paper. Open curtains for light and windows for airflow. Walk. Stop spending money on cheap crap that breaks after two uses creating a cycle to buy more cheap crap.