It pays to clean...

On Sunday, before the madness of karaoke, I went to my dad's. Since I've moved a few times, there are items that I still want kept in boxes at his house, waiting for the day I have a home of my own. The fact that he lives so close makes it easy to keep stuff there. Once in awhile I will remember an old text book that will help with a current research assignment and I can just pop over, go through three boxes, and come up with the perfect resource for when I need to write a report about Post Soviet States (okay, I may have taken some odd classes in the past. Interesting, but not overly relevant to the life I live.)

DM and I spent much of the weekend watching this old, cheesy TV show that I just adored. The show is "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman." When I was in high school, I wanted to be Lois Lane in the worst way. I never cared much for Superman himself, but Dean Cain is awfully pretty to look at. I enjoyed the times he was Clark Kent and I loved the jobs they held. I wanted to be a newspaper reporter and investigate and wear professional attire. This dream actually took me into a pre-journalism major that fizzled when I realized that my actual passion is business. By sheer luck, I ended up in the career I have currently and the job that I wanted when I was really little. (Yes, I was a kid who wanted to be a banker. I didn't want money, I just wanted to organize money.)

Since DM and I were watching the first season of the show on DVD, I remembered that I had the other seasons on VHS. I'm anxiously awaiting the release of the next three seasons, but in the meantime, I could try dusting off my VCR (which, by the way, I cannot figure out how to hook up to the electronic disaster going on with my TV. Having a TV that the remote no longer works and is not technologically advanced to have any sort of plugs for a DVD player is rather humorous. I have two separate adapters that allows me to hook up the DVD player and two gaming systems (that I don't use) and now I'm trying to figure out how to add a VCR to the mix. It's amazing how many electronics I have but never use. Sad, sad. I'm going to therapy over it. Or I should.) and seeing which tapes still work.

Well, the tapes were stored at Dad's house. So I went into his attic to look around. I found the tapes, but I also found boxes full of other goodies. It's like Christmas. There were presents left for me by me!

I found my old keychain collection. Highly amusing. It is complete with a whistle, a rainbow parrot, a cow, a Superman S (hmmm, wonder why I bought that?), a glow-in-the-dark advertisement for the bank I managed to work at as a teller but it has the name of the bank it was before it was acquired by the larger corporation of NABABNA*, a penny with the slogan "the CENT never spent to repair a ZIPPO lighter, Bart Simpson, a ticket for Phantom of the Opera, a geode, a road sign saying "So many pedestrians, so little time," a ticket for Les Miserables, numerous states (mostly MN, AZ, IA, and WI), and a pliers. Do I use any of these? No.

I also found my old collection of buttons. I remember being 5 and being fascinated by buttons. Not buttons that you would sew on clothing. No. Just buttons that advertise things. Like Homecoming or "I'm saving myself for Tom Selleck" (yes, actual button found). The most priceless of these is the button a friend of mine gave me when she was volunteering at a local clinic. It shows sperm swimming around and says, "Not every ejaculation needs to have a name."

There was a tin (with penguins on it, of course) full of cards. All of the cards were from the same year. I saved EVERY SINGLE card I received that year. There was one from DM's cats. I also found money in the birthday card from my grandparents! This is where it pays to clean.

Besides some old souvenirs that will eventually end up in scrapbooks, I found old notebooks. These were actually pretty nice to find. I have found some of the old stories I tried to write and horrible, awful poetry I wrote when I thought I knew everything there was to know about love and longing. Which is odd because I never really dated all that much in high school or college. In this box was also a pile of papers. The different papers were jokes or funny items I found through email lists. Why I printed them I'll never know, but they are going to be blogging fodder for a bit. There will be quotes and anecdotes and quizzes. Fun!

I found a quiz called, "Are you a stud?" I don't really want to be a stud, but I found it funny that I had it. So I took the quiz. Out of a possible 120+ points, I scored 9. I was actually up to 19, but then lost 10 points for singing karaoke. The most macho thing I've done is run a rack in pool. That makes me feel good.

And this is something my grandpa gave me years ago. Now that he has passed on, I'm glad I still have it. It gives me an idea of his humor.

Know Your "ISMS"

Socialism: you have two cows and give one to your neighbor

Communism: you have two cows; the government takes both and gives you the milk

Fascism: you have two cows; the government takes both and sells you the milk

Nazism: you have two cows; the government takes both and shoots you

New Dealism: you have two cows; the government takes both, shoots one, milks the other and throws the milk away

Capitalism: you have two cows; you sell one and buy a bull

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*NABABNA - fake name.