Shredding my Adulthood

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.

I'm busy purging and packing and shredding in preparation for my move back across the country. I'm moving back to Seattle and applying to graduate school for ethnomusicology.

No guarantees I'll get in.

In fact, there are no guarantees about much in my life these days. My stuff is (might?) be moved by a "friend-of-a-friend" who owns his own tractor-trailer. But, I've yet to talk to this guy (who's name is Henry). All I know is that he's a friend of my friend, Marsha, and according to Henry's wife, he's up for the plan. I'm putting a LOT of faith in this. I don't usually (ever?)operate this way.

But, even when I've tried to have a plan and have moved in a straight line, somehow my path veered off course. I've never been one to walk the straight and narrow, even when I search for stability.

Last night I spent 5 HOURS shredding bank records, cancelled checks, car and house insurance forms, credit card bills and promotions and other miscellaneous stuff. I realized I was putting the record of my adulthood to rest. I was getting rid of history.

Here are some of the things I shredded:

1. A rent check to my landlord for $225 a month! (wish I could pay that again!)

2. A $25 donation to "Hands Across America" from 1986. Remember that? The whole country was supposed to join hands and have a human chain spread from coast-to-coast. I forget why, however.

3. A $15 donation to "The Friends of Forest Park". This was an organization headed by this guy I was nuts for, John Malack. Forest Park was an old-timey amusement park near Philadelphia. I wonder if he saved it? Wonder how he's doing?

4. Checks made out to Art/Not Terminal gallery for "hanging fees" for paintings I used to display at the artist-run gallery.

5. The bill of sale for the very first new car I ever bought.

6. A letter from my old High School School District, saying I owed them back taxes from the years 1985, 86 and 87. They sent back the evidence I mailed to them, where I copied old bank records from those years that clearly showed my address to be in different cities and states. According to the school district, my bank records were from the "wrong months" in those years!!

And, lots of cancelled checks to credit cards and department stores and craft shops for lots of clothing, arts and crafts and jewelry that I "just had to have" at the time. Stuff I've long forgotten about or thrown away or given as gifts.

Maybe I didn't really need it after all? That's what I'm thinking, anyway, as I throw out or donate bags and bags of old clothing and nick knacks and other crap. I don't want to drag it back across the country with me as I start my life over again.