Summer: Thurs. 6/25

Officially changing my post titles to Summer, because quarantine has long ceased to be some remarkable, temporary period of time and is now looking like the New Normal for the foreseeable future. In NJ, things are opening up, but we're still pretty locked down in our house. I just can't see going out to eat anytime soon. I read something that said six people touch your fork before it makes its way to you at your table, which, as a former waitress, seems totally possible. Everyone has their own comfort level. Mine is very very very low. Or high? Whatever. I am not comfortable going out in public, is what I'm trying to say.

The girls were out of sync this morning, probably because I unwisely let Lucia sleep till 11am, so when she woke up she was crabby and spacey. She is a sleeper, that one. So there was a lot of petty bickering until after lunch, and then they just kind of did their own thing and read in their rooms. They had piano lessons. We read some Harry Potter together.

I dove deep into an attic cleanout today. This is a multi-day area. The discoveries deserve a recounting:

• baby toys
• pleather purses from 20+ years ago
• my very first (and not skillful) knockoff handbag from Chinatown (Kate Spade; purchase date: 1999)
• a box of pinecones Andrew and I collected at a park in Lake Tahoe (14 years ago; also, these are KEEPERS)
• enough empty shoeboxes to fill the entire trunk of our SUV
• a large box of video game strategy guides from Andrew's first post-MBA job (which we've now carted around with us from CA to Brooklyn to NJ--WHY)
• two big boxes of Andrew's business school cases
• an old Boppy nursing pillow
• maternity clothes
• all the brochures and realtor printouts from when we were house hunting in 2012
• financial planning binders and accordian folders from 2009

I mean--I could go on and on. Do you live in Maplewood or South Orange? Then you've seen my barrage of sale posts. Stuff is moving out rapidly, which is great, and I have a donation pickup arranged for August, and we're probably getting one of those bagster-dumpster things when we tackle the garage. It's a process. 

This cleanout is--unpleasant. It's emotionally taxing, logistically challenging, and physically arduous. The end result is going to be a light, airy, uncluttered house, though those light, airy, uncluttered areas are the places no one ever sees--the dirty little secrets of our cozy home. So much of it is garbage! We have four giant Rural King garbage bags out by the curb right now for bulk pickup--literal trash. Trash that's been in our house for 8 years. I'm telling you, this is a reckoning.