Cleaning out the house encompasses an unbelievable range of items. Inevitably that brings up memories of things you hadn’t thought of in years, and the idea of walking away from things that have been in your life “forever”.

Yesterday I attacked a filing cabinet in my office. Really I just wanted to clear it out so I could hide all my yarn in it until it’s time to donate that. We have always enjoyed theatre and for the last 20 years we have had a subscription to the La Jolla Playhouse which we have enjoyed immensely. It is definitely one of the hardest things to consider giving up for our retirement plans. Due to the longevity of our subscription, we have terrific seats and we always enjoy our date nights in La Jolla. I have collected every Playbill from the performances, and others that we have gone to, in town, in New York, for my friend Michael Butterworth’s doctoral studies in Missoula, Montana, in Los Angeles, wherever. They all went into this cabinet. So when I went to clear it out I had to be ruthless. So many of the performances I remembered clear as day, the conversations we had about them, the elation of the performers in premiere plays when the audience responded well, the train wrecks…so many memories. Here’s a signed one from Hedwig and the Angry Inch in New York and a photo of me with Michael C Hall, who played Hedwig.

This was the first tough clean out. Pulling off the band-aid so to speak. I hope it makes the subsequent clear outs easier because for a sentimental person with hoarding tendencies, this was tough!