De-noted.

In preparing to carpet their upstairs, my parents emptied the closets in the former bedrooms of me and my siblings. They asked us kindly to go sort through our stuff.* I sorted my stuff and had winnowed it down to one (large) bin, but then with holiday gifts and bags and kid stuff filling our car, I had to leave that bin behind. Before 2009 began, I made the decision to lose my Sweet Valley Twins books, my Babysitters Club, and various others (I saved Beverly Cleary's works, my All-of-a-Kind Family books, and some others that were favorites of mine growing up. I also lost a large pile of 5x7 notecards that I had made to prepare for various exams in college. If someone ever wants to quiz about Theology 100 or Plants, Food, and Society (a science class for non-science people like me), I will now be sorely unprepared. I will spare you an account of all that I lost or not . . . a couple of items will likely need to be tossed again once the bin arrives in Chicago (I promise, mom and dad, I'm picking it up, next trip) and I have to ponder what is worth storing under my own roof. I was very close to throwing away a large box of looseleaf notes, often quite artfully-folded, that I had received in high school. I reread a few of them and they made me smile and I had the idea that I could read them all once more and then toss them. At the same time, I kind of knew that would take hours and was not necessary. Anyway, my parents were hauling my bin into their garage this afternoon and called to figure out what to do about the box of notes. My mom thought I wanted to toss them; my dad thought I wanted to save them. I am proud to report that I called back and authorized tossing the box of notes ("Lose It!"). Sure, I will never again be able to reference just how bored my friends were during fourth period, how tired from football practice, nervous about Homecoming, or annoyed by other friends . . . but I think I will survive. After all, I'm on Facebook now.

So, fess up, did you save your high school notes?


*I want to say that my parents are incredibly kind about storing stuff, considering that they are currently unable to park a single car in their multi-car garage, thanks to that sort of kindness.