In sickness and in health

I wasn't sure I was going to make it through a box, a bag, a shelf or a pile today. Last night I learned what it means when someone says "the room is spinning". Believe me, this was knowledge I could have lived without. I managed to make it upstairs to the bedroom safely and, as the Wizard pointed out, when I shut my eyes the room stopped spinning. Having my eyes shut made it difficult to read my book, however.

Anyway, I had this major dizzy spell or whatever it was last night and when I woke up this morning, I really wasn't sure how I felt. I decided to take it easy and clean up my iTunes files instead of tackling any number of other de-crapification tasks that were awaiting.

Most people probably don't ever bother with looking at how their music files are actually saved, but despite the chaos in my house, I truly like order and simplicity. When iTunes takes a 3-disc classical music set and stores it in 3 different locations (one disc under the conductor's name, one disc under the composer's name, and the third disc under the performing group's name), it really bugs me. I spent several hours whipping iTunes music files into shape. They aren't perfect now, but they aren't bothering me quite so much.

I felt a little better this evening, so I found 3 boxes and assorted other items on the shelves in my bedroom and brought them down to take a look:


The first box (the one in the middle) was a snap. It had some computer cables and extension cords, pieces of an intercom system that never really worked right, stuff like that. The papers and things on top of the box on the left were pretty easy as well -- they were mostly things that the Drama Queen left behind.

The rest of the left-hand box was a little more difficult. It seemed to be mostly stuff that was on the shelves in my bedroom that got thrown into a box at some point. As much as possible, I returned things to their proper locations or set them aside to discuss with the Wizard, who is out honing his card sharping skills tonight. I also have a pile of books and puzzles that I am saving for a friend with young children.

But this was by far the most interesting object I came across tonight:

That envelope contains, if you can believe it, grade reports for my senior year in high school. Before anyone asks, I graduated high school in 1970, which means that I have been carrying these grades around for nearly 40 years. And I probably will continue to haul them around, if only because my mother's signatures were something of a private joke between the two of us. (And it's going to stay private.)

For the record, I got Bs in Driver Education, Physics, and P.E., and As in English, Creative Writing, and Advanced Math. I probably deserved a C or a D in that Physics class. I remember that I tried really hard to make the teacher fail me altogether for at least 2 grading periods that year. But that's a long story, and best left in the past with the rest of my high school career.