Dude, where's my sleep? (Patty)

Katrina was a good exercise in mandatory purging. We lost about one/third of our stuff, and I was glad to get rid of some of that crap! Paperwork from the 90s, Christmas ornaments that were in the family but I didn't really LOVE, furniture that needed to be replaced, a certain portion of our things I felt great about losing....
Another portion I felt stupid about losing, the American Girl dolls and all their outfits and paraphernalia; they were so expensive that instead of giving them away, I was selfishly into that "save them for the grandchildren" mentality, so now no one has them. Also, right before we evacuated I made a big to-do about Portia's big suitcase...she had been home from camp for over a month and it was still lying around, I insisted she move it back to the storage room...she still laments the loss of that turquoise valise that went for a swim with everything else...
Then there was stuff that I occasionally miss, especially the yearbooks, which I would refer to now and again and a few products that they really DON'T make the way they used to...
Finally there is the stuff that was painful to lose, like the entire, recently renovated apartment and the tenant, the washer/dryer, the carpet, the pool table...
The sad or possibly happy thing is that even though we completely gutted the storage room in 2005 resulting in NOTHING in it, 4 years later, the room has filled up again! New crap, new years of paperwork, John's entire office when he moved home, lamps that don't work too well but MAYBE someone will use them one day...
So I would say that I am inconsistent on the hoarding issue. I do have a drawer that is sort of scary to open, where I keep keys and Scotch tape and postage stamps and envelopes and thousands of various sundry items. I can find anything I am looking for in seconds...why does tape go with keys? My mother had a similar drawer, and in my mind, these items belong together...I suppose I am propagating another generation of weird-items-thrown-together. When I really stop to look at it, some of the items make NO sense, like old cellphones are in that drawer...when there are old veggies in the fridge, even when there is 99% chance that no one will ever eat them I can look at them and say "Hmmm, not quite rotten enough yet" and close the drawer. The food will eventually go BAD and then I throw it out. If ONLY the cell phones would just go BAD!
It was a crazy week, first it was the midnight showing of Inglourious Basterds followed by Cafe du Monde resulting in a sea of teenagers coming in at 4AM...then the going-away night, which also involved lots of loud teens, ( 1AM reenactment: "DUUUUUUDDDE!!!!" ) Do you now feel like you were here?? Then, Saturday at Tulane moving Zeke in to his dorm room and on to Atlanta in our Beverly Hillbillies car, with mops and hangers sticking out the windows to move Madison in to her on-campus apartment on Sunday...now I'm home and it's like someone died. It's so quiet! Good time to look at an old yearbook...doh!!

Patty