Day 215: Cassettes

We have a chest of drawers that holds all of our CDs. (Yes, we still listen to CDs -- sometimes I don't feel like flipping through 800 iPod menus to find the Incubus CD I feel like hearing.) (And sometimes someone decides to delete all my Ryan Adams albums off the iPod.)

Anyway. The bottom drawer has cassettes. My boys like this drawer a lot, because they can open the case and hurl the cassette across the living room, and it makes a loud noise. I think that's their top criteria for any plaything -- its noise level when hitting the floor.

The other day, as I was cleaning up the cassettes for the zillionth time, I realized -- why do we have cassettes, anyway? What's even in this drawer? I kept a few (Aerosmith, a few mix tapes, the Chess soundtrack) but most of them were pretty dispensable. The Murmurs? Tripping Daisy? Martika's second album? Jeez.

DESTINATION: Goodwill. They'll probably throw them away, let's be real.

Day 214: A Cat...?

I am not a cat person. I think that, beneath all the purring and nuzzling, most cats are evil.

So I'm not sure why I had this cat in my box of stuffed animals. But I'm fairly sure I remember Ge bringing it home from his old job at the dump.

(That sounds worse than it is. It was the Bernardsville dump, where people routinely threw out working stereos, leather jackets, collectibles, and nice furniture. We got an old-school silver microphone and a fully functional Victrola there.)

If I'm wrong, and G isn't the one who gave it to me, I'm sorry to that person (for forgetting) and to G (for falsely accusing him of cat-gifting). Either way, I don't trust it.

DESTINATION: Goodwill.

Day 210-213: Floating Frames

These frames are cool in theory, but we moved some artwork (I use that term very loosely) around in our living room and these frames got displaced.

DESTINATION: Goodwill.

Day 208-209: Throw Pillows

I got crafty one day in college (literally, one day ever in college) and decided to make blue velvet star pillows for our apartment.

A few years later, George and I bought a couch that came with hideous Santa Fe-inspired pillows. Bolstered by my great success with the star pillows, I decided to reupholster the free pillows with blue faux suede. Because why throw away free pillows when you can transform them into cheap-looking, boring pillows?

We're getting rid of both sets.

DESTINATION: Star pillows went in the trash, the others went to Goodwill. I think.

Day 201-207: Clothes

I did another sweep of my closet and got rid of a few unflattering tanks, a denim miniskirt (see "I'm not 12 years old"), some yoga pants that had faded from black to charcoal gray, and a pair of Aeropostale short-shorts (did I mention I'm not 12?).

I was having a bad hair day when we did this pic. Also a bad face day.

DESTINATION: Goodwill.

Day 200: Samsung Phone Manual

We haven't owned our Samsung phones since early 2009. But we still had the manuals around -- just in case we ever wanted to reminisce, I guess.

DESTINATION: Trash.

Day 199: Random Crap

A button, a belly ring, a screw, a watch link, a little ampersand thingie that fell off a paper clip. What do these things have in common? They've been cluttering up my desk for months now. They're all too lame to post individually, but I think they can count as one entry in my (desperate) attempt to clean my desk.

If it helps, this is what my desk looked like:



Sorry if that made you hyperventilate.

So, here's some random crap.

DESTINATION: Goodwill. No, just kidding. Trash.

Day 198: Raffle Tickets

Okay, if these were normal raffle ticket that I bought and lost, I'd just throw them out. That's normal trash -- just like I don't post every time I throw out a J. Crew catalog, broken toy, or expired cheese. But I've been saving these raffle tickets. They've been on my desk for well over a year, because they're special -- they're a souvenir.

Except it occurred to me the other day that I have NO idea where they're from. Fantasy Island? Ocean City? Point Pleasant? Piney Festival? I'm not a gambler. When did I even enter a raffle?

Anyway.

DESTINATION: Trash.

Day 197: Heart Barrette

Am I 12 years old? Am I a raver? Am I Avril Lavigne circa 2003?

No, no, and no.

Day 196: Silly Bands

Danger got these silly bands so long ago that...silly bands were in style. They were a party favor, but he was still an infant and probably would have ingested them. But I thought the design was cool, so I kept them. Maybe I thought I would bestow them upon him on his fifth birthday or something like that. Anyway, he's still a long way off from wanting to wear accessories (I'm lucky if he'll keep his shoes on for 10 minutes) so I'm getting them off my desk.

DESTINATION: Trash.

Day 194-195: Bracelets

I can't even start to comprehend how far behind we are, but we'll catch up one of these days! (Even if we spend New Year's Eve posting 82 entries.) (Although it would take away from our usual New Year's Eve excitement, which is playing ski jump on Wii Sports.)

I started by cleaning off my office desk. First things I found: A set of "silver" bangles that are 80% oxidized crap now, and a beaded bracelet that no one over age 11 should wear (but I did).

DESTINATION: Trash.