Me in a Box

I am a semi-organized packrat. Opening the boxes I have hidden away in my parents’ house is always an adventure because there is no way to predict what you’ll find. While I was visiting Alamo for the holiday, I ventured into the random closets packed to the eaves with remnants of my life in search of high school t-shirts (I’m on a quest to make a t-shirt quilt. More on that later.). When I finally stumbled across the last remaining cotton CV survivors, it was rather entertaining all the other mementos of memory lane were safely tucked alongside the t-shirts...

*Versailles book bought with love for too many French Francs on my first European adventure (with Renoir bookmark safely tucked inside of the famous dancing couple)
*German Barbie, still in its box (don’t ask – still not sure why I can’t throw this away)
*Signed book that my mom gave me for Christmas years ago (don’t even really like the book, but the author signed it which makes me unable to part with it)
*Not one, but two checkerboard cake pans
*Teddy bear (one of the originals that I’ve had since infancy with a chipped black nose and red fabric heart)
*Barnaby teddy bear with very long legs from Hillary
*Giants pennant
*Clayton Valley academic letter
*CV leadership shirt
*Senior women shirt
*Wrigley Field shirt
*T-ball trophy from my one and only year on a baseball field with the 1990 Twins
*Junior prom shoes (love those shoes more than I care to admit - sparkly silver Nina heels)
*Cherished Teddy figurines (why exactly did I pay so much money for those?)
*HS graduation tassels and cords
*2nd grade cross-stitch
*Great-grandmother’s bone china teacups and saucers
*Girls Camp whistle (with five years of beads attached)
*Musical programs (Wicked, Les Miserables (4 total – one signed by the cast), Mamma Mia, Blood Brothers, Starlight Express, Phantom of the Opera (1 actual program, 1 Curran Theater version), Thoroughly Modern Mille, Shakespeare Festival (Cedar City when I saw Twelfth Night)
*Playbills (Millie 2 from back-to-back nights in NYC), Wicked (one show in SF and one in LA), Miss Saigon (SLC), Phantom of the Opera (SF), Mamma Mia (SF), Les Mis (Sacramento, SF), Sea Farer (Marin), Utah Shakespearean Festival (Cedar)
*Tigers soccer trophy 1988 (is it totally mind-blowing to anyone else that this was 22 years ago)
*Jaclyn Lane sign (never appreciated until now that my grandpa probably had to have it made since my name never shows up in stories)
*Pepsi (nickel drink worth a dime) old-fashioned sign
*Kindergarten hand print
*Soccer picture plaque from the 1993 Krazy Kickers
*Gumby patch (one of many of that I had during middle school - glad I personally helped keep Claires in business)
And a few other odds and ends (ribbons, rings, fabric scraps)

Not sure why I have all that still especially since that is just one box of many, but I loved going through it just the same. Pretty fun to find me in a box.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!