Queen of the Free Pile

Huzzah, I'm finally packed!! I squished my life into about 14 boxes and you wouldn't BELIEVE the piles of stuff I got rid of. Furniture, shoes, boots, clothes, linens, kitchen accouterments, office supplies, plants, watercolor paper, and a pair of purple bell bottoms with beads. Remind me why I needed those?

I am the Queen of the Free Pile. I kept amending the sign near the mailboxes in my building. "Just added!" and then a list. "Going fast!" and then a list. "Last day!" and then a list. People have been swarming. I met so many of my neighbors in this experience it's sort of a shame I'm going to move away. It's wonderful that so much material is being recycled/reused/repurposed, though. Most of it came from Goodwill anyway, so I feel like I have at least one free pass to not recycle a yogurt cup or something.

About halfway through packing, for about a minute, I considered simply abandoning EVERYTHING. Will I ever come back for this stuff? Will I be glad to see it if I do? Will I just look at it and wonder what the hell I was thinking? I guess we'll see.

My party is planned -- if you didn't get an email or Facebook invitation maybe we need to be introduced, because I think I invited EVERYBODY. Still, things happen -- for the record, it's July 17 at Amy's and then the Goodfoot. Call me for details.

Stacy is having a closet purge tomorrow and it's KILLING me -- the timing is all wrong! I can't amass more crap now, I just got rid of several tons of it! But I covet her shoes.......I am going to another continent with only nine pair of shoes, have I mentioned this??

Oh, and another thing -- summer is here and everything is getting better, just in time to make me feel sad about leaving. Sabina started walking, the sun is out, JP is about to break ground on his gorgeous new house in Hood River -- I'm starting to think about what I'm going to miss. You, of course, are at the top of the list.