black friday

Today is supposed to be the biggest shopping day of the year, where everyone burns off their turkey dinners and go shopping. For whatever reason they call it Black Friday. I kept watching all the ads last night and it seemed like everyone was opening their doors earlier than I've ever seen it. 5am at most locations. Eventualy I suspect they'll have the sales start at midnight or something.

I know the sales are supposed to spurn the shopping, but I also wonder if people are burning up all the anxiety over seeing their families the previous day and doing all this shopping therapy.

Been cleaning out the hubby's apartment. There's alot of dust that can accumulate in 12 years time. We went to my parent's for lunch, then headed to his place for 7 hours chucking stuff. It's like eating so much food, getting rid of a ton of stuff that you haven't used in a long time, really takes away any appetite to go shopping today, sale or no sale.

Even after we move stuff to a storage locker, we will still have to go through all the stuff, to make sure it's stuff we want to keep, plus pay someone to keep it for us. We've become more selective at the things we buy.

Today, we went to breakfast. I went home and took a bath. He went back to the apartment to clear more stuff. I'll spend a few hours here, cleaning up and rearranging things to make space for the boxes that will be stored here. I'm going to empty a few cupboard to look for food donations. Because really, how many cans of the Costco soup do you really need in the cupboard?

This Thanksgiving weekend, we're thanking all the stuff that has already come into our lives: letting it go, giving it away. Thanking the items for the time spent and setting them off to some place else where perhaps someone else will make use of them. Last week we left out a large metal desk, a couple of days later someone took it. yay! Thanking stuff and things seems silly, I know. But the question came up, how do you get yourself to let go of things. Things that you bought 10 years ago for $1000 which is now not worth much more than $10, you keep thinking is still worth $1000, even though you don't use it or it's broken. Or things people, who now gone, have given you. He'll say, "my mother bought that for me." I reply, "your mother would have bought you a new one." Something about thanking the item creates a way for us to let go, a way to bring closure, so we don't have to keep hanging on to it just to keep it in our lives.

Tomorrow we're renting a Uhaul for half the day to move stuff to a storage locker. Then off to Rex's show at the Punchline with the family. (Tickets are still available.