Things you learn while packing....

1) the tangible extent of my 25+ years of U2 fandom fit in one smallish box and one poster tube. Looking at it packed up that way it just seems so small and....unimportant. If you thought that, you'd be wrong, though. So wrong. In the midst of the chaos that is my day-to-day life right now, that box and it's contents give me pleasure and a moment of peace. I can't even tell you how soothing it was to me to spend 5 minutes today putting their cds in order, chronologically, of course. To check that all the cds and dvds were in the cases, and check them all for major scratches or dirt. To smooth the magazine covers and carefully cross-check my itunes to make sure I have all the important stuff both digitally and on disc. I even dug through my memorablia box and looked at my autographed ticket stub for the first time in a year or more. It's still there, and it's still autographed, lol! Made me smile. And that means a lot.
I'm also in the process of making a dream mix playlist, all my favorite versions of all my favorite u2 songs. It's gonna rock. When I get it done I'll copy it to my ipod and a cd and that will further soothe my frazzled brain. It's the little things, right?

2) I have way, way, WAY too much craft stuff. Way. Too. Much. And I have been getting rid of a lot of it, I really have! But still. Way too much. At this rate our van will be completely full of craft stuff and family photos when we leave town, all the rest of our worldly possessions relegated to the (small) trunk of the car. Not that there's anything wrong with that....
The thing is, I'm not like a big old craft maven or anything. Sure, I've tried a lot of crafts over the years, but I'm not a huge hoarder or a Martha Stewart wanna be. I've done a lot of sewing, but had to purge my fabric stash when we moved to Alaska and haven't ever really built it up again. I have a little fabric now, 2 bags of polyfill, and one lonely Singer sewing machine (my surger finally died after a long and fruitful life). Likewise, I don't have a huge yarn stash. Knitting needles and crochet hooks just don't take up THAT much space, and what yarn I have fills one suitcase, that's it.
I guess I have to admit it's all that scrapbooking stuff. It really has a way of just growing and growing and growing...so much cardstock, so many different patterned papers. So many, many different adhesives, trimmers, scissors, pens, pencils, gadgets of all kinds. Drills and punches and punch-cleaner-outers. Stamps, mounted and unmounted. Rubber and acrylic. Mounted on foam, mounted on wood, mounted on plastic. Ink pads, ink bottles, ink cleaning solution. Pots of paint, pigment and mysterious crystals. Bottles of dyes, stains, cleaners and "refresher". God, it's so much, and but I hate to get rid of it all.

Add to that my quickly growing stash of vintage buttons and trims, and....well, it's too much. Way. Too. Much.

I have a feeling that I'm going to be out on the sidewalk the night before we leave, frantically trying to consolidate everything into as few boxes as possible in the hopes of somehow making it all fit.

Either that or I'll do like the pioneer women did, leaving a slew of cast off possessions along the Oregon Trail, things that seem so important now but somehow along the way turn into ballast that must be dropped.