Currently reading - Old crap I had the temerity to write thinking it was greatSeriously. I've been cleaning out the room that's supposed to be my office, trying to make it usuable again. When I was practicing law from home after GK was born, I had set up my desk and equipment in the loft.
A few years later, several things happened at the same time. I was hired by a law firm, DH got permission to work from home, and GK outgrew his toddler bed. So we played musical rooms. GK moved into the guest bedroom, DH got the loft office, and I set up shop in what was the nursery.
(Can I say, "Thank Djehuti, I decorated GK's room in an Egyptian theme?" I wanted something different than the ususal bears and bunnies. The lady I hired, Mona, took my inital design and ran with it. She made the walls look like a museum piece, not a kid's bedroom.)
Unfortunately, my "office" also ended up becoming the junk room. No, we don't have a junk drawer. We have a junk room. Including the dozen or so boxes I never unpacked when DH and I moved to Texas FOURTEEN FREAKIN' YEARS AGO.
Enough was enough. This was my weekend off, and I wanted my office back. So far, two bags of trash are waiting for the garbage truck on Monday. And that's just what I've thrown out yesterday. I've got two more days.
But while I was working on the second box of crap, I found them. Yes, my first attempts at writing. Bad poetry, angsty journal entries and incredibly poor attempts at novels. Egads!
DH asked to look at them. Yeah, right. I frankly do not need the mocking. I'm doing quite enough myself. (Not that DH would mock me, but this is up there with that sex ed. film the public schools show the fifth graders in embarrassment level.)
But I've come a hell of a long way. I've got fulls sitting on the desks of agents and editors. I'll make it eventually and redeem that poor, misguided teenager.
Now, for the secrets. . .
For my regular readers who actually check in on Saturdays, I'll let you in on something. Something good. Remember Brenda Novak's auction for diabetes research? I've never won anything on that auction.
Until this year.
61 books.
That's right. Here I am trying to clean out extraneous stuff from my house, and I've got 61 autographed books on their way.
What I'm going to do is set up Reading Wednesdays. That means every Wednesday I'll hold a drawing for U.S. and Canadian commenters for special prizes. The prize may be one book. Or it may be a special theme package! It all depends on the mood I'm in.
The fun will start Wednesday, June 16th. Put it on your calendars!
the dozen or so boxes I never unpacked when DH and I moved to Texas FOURTEEN FREAKIN' YEARS AGO.
ReplyDeleteYou win. And I don't feel bad about our boxes anymore. :D
Seriously, though, I wish I had my old writing. :/ I lost everything back in '90, and my old stories and poetry and even papers from school are up there toward the top of the list of things I still regret, even now. Yes, most of it was horribly embarassing, but on the other hand doesn't it feel wonderful to read that stuff and see how far you've come? :)
Angie
Oh no, Angie, it's actually much sadder than you think. Over half of these boxes are stuff I packed up when I moved from Delaware to Ohio Apt. #1 back in 1992. They went to Ohio Apt. #2, DH's house, then down to Texas without being once opened.
ReplyDeleteDamn, I'm really sorry you lost your stuff. And yeah, one of the cooler things was a letter to my children, part of a geneaology class in college. Most of what I said twenty-five years ago still applies to how DH and I are raising GK.