8.29.99

    I'm afraid I might turn into the Crazy Cat Lady™ any day now. I just took "action shots" of Oz chasing string. Who knows how they'll turn out. Did you know I briefly considered making an "Oz the Cat" page? Stop me before I buy cat-themed clothing.

    The apartment is looking amazing. It's not totally cleaned until we make a run to Goodwill, recycling and donate T's old computer somewhere. Then it'll look smashing. It's so nice to have floorspace. This evening while T. was cooking up a smashing dinner of pork chops smothered in sweet potatoes and apples and cinnamon and other lovely spices I sprawled out on the living room floor flipping through a magazine and looking at coupons. I felt like I was in high school. Except, I never clipped coupons in high school but... you know what I mean.

    Things that are in the Goodwill pile:

• A cute wooden box of random bits of thread, beads, baubles, sequins, buttons and plastic doohickeys.
• Another cute box of random scraps of fabric and ribbon.
• Several too-small and ugly sweaters.
• A pair of bell-bottoms which I hand-colored slogans on for a school play.
• A pair of hardly-worn, very uncomfortable, black velvet, Nine West pumps.
• A set of bottles with wide mouths and corks for containing your homemade salad dressings with associated wall rack, circa 1972.
• Several heinous shirts which I didn't like when I acquired them way back when and I certainly don't like now.
• A Precious Moment statuette that I got at graduation from somebody.
• A plastic, multi-tiered lazy susan.

    Things that I don't know what to do with:

• Fondue pot with like 3 million fondue forks.
• My mom's jewelry box.

    The Fondue pot is kind of a no-brainer. It has kitsch value and is still functional. The forks are pretty cute, too, but I have no idea why my parent's needed so many. They must have had one hell of a fondue party. I really don't even know how to do fondue although I'm sure a quick search on the web could tell me something. A fondue pot is so big, though, to just have around. I guess it'll just sit until we decide to do something with it.

    The jewelry box is something more difficult. It's a standing box with two little, red velvet, line drawers at the bottom with two doors that open up to reveal hooks for necklaces and more drawers and compartments for earring and whatnot. It's black, padded vinyl on the outside with a dotted, gold line that runs along its edges. When you open the doors there's two sticker labels that my mom must have made on one of those label machines where the reel of colored tape gets punched with the letter you choose. One one door it has her name with her maiden name and on the other it reads: "Mr. and Mrs. [His Name] Erickson." You can tell that they were done at different times with different machines. I think it's cute.

    My mom brought it and left it here with all the other stuff. I don't know what to do with it. I don't really have a use for it. I already have a jewelry box that I seldom open since I rarely change my jewelry. If I keep it then I need to find a place to store it. If I get rid of it... well... what do I do? Take it to Goodwill? Give it to a friend?

    The problem is, is that that jewelry box has meaning for me. When I was a little girl I used to love to look through that jewelry box. My mom has always had really interesting and unique pieces and she wouldn't let me go pawing through there any time I wanted. I had to ask and she would stay with me. One of my favorite things in the box with a polished agate with a bit of leaf inside. If she had just gotten rid of it, I would have never thought too much more about it. The box would remain safely in my memory as a special thing. Instead, I'm saddled with what to do with this memory. Do I keep the box as a memento of youth. (It's not my box. Just by my having the box sort of changes its meaning for me.) Or, do I give it away and let someone else make a memory out of it?