My wish? A violin would be nice...

7/20/10 Two more Five Wishes packets, given away

In the span of three days, I've downsized all of my excess living wills and am darn close to filling out my own set. (Keep holding me to it.)

Some readers -- you know who you are, Gemni -- may feel that downsizes such as this are a tad on the weak side. It's just a packet of papers, and one that I didn't even actively acquire.

Thin-skinned as I am, I shall present my defense:

1) As I wrote a year ago in the post outlining the Challenge Guidelines, a downsize is legitimate if I get rid of something "that wasn't headed out the door already." The Five Wishes packets were most definitely not headed out the door. I'd had them for years, clinging to them like family heirlooms. As illogical as that may be.

2) Two months ago I sold my house and a month ago I moved across the country. The amount of items I culled through those processes is rather staggering, if I do say so myself. (Check out this, and this, and, for goodness sake, this!) What could possibly be left? Yet, every day I find something to part with.

3) We are currently living (by affluent, twenty-first century American standards) a rather bare-bones existence. We are in a one-bedroom apartment with only those items we feel are most essential. We have not a single picture on the wall, not a single knick-knack on the windowsill, not a single box of old CDs in the basement. Heck, we don't have a basement. Yet, every day I find something to part with.

4) Thank Zeus there are only eleven days left in the challenge. If I weren't in the final sprint of the homestretch, motivation would be severely lagging. I am the Resident Principal of SOAR Charter School, which will open its doors for the first time (literally -- the paint isn't even dry enough on the building for us to move in, yet) in less than a month. Plus, I'm trying to do my part to help Joanna properly care for this little tyke that seems to have moved in with us. (And please do not tell me how your children easily slept through the night as infants -- that information does not help.) Oh, and we're having a house built. These little factors have been occupying a good part of my time, energy, and attention. Yet, every day I find something to part with (and write a mini-essay about it).

Are the violins playing out there? I hope so... they need to drown out the sound of the crickets.

So that's my case. Not asking for sympathy; I'm happy to admit that not every downsize is inspiring and many a post could have been written by the cats.

Yet, every day I find something to part with.

But only for eleven more days.