Sharkbait's Local Spot

For the last month or so, I've been going through things, paring down, and getting ready for my new housemate to move in. Tonight my NYE plans fell through, which was a blessing in disguise.

25 years I've been saving diaries, newpaper articles, poems, letters and cards in a bunch of boxes and canisters, which, for the last five years or so have been stored in an ottoman storage bench. I have been carelessly writing and tossing things into this bin, and reorganizing it when necessary. I've moved at least 5 times with this unwieldy beast, blindly kicking the cans down the road.

Tonight, brought to you by Hendrick's Gin, I actually opened the treasure chest. I had no idea what I've (literally) been sitting on for so long. I had documented everything from the Challenger explosion to Loma Prieta to 9/11 to my first kiss to my period to my time before these giant breasts and beyond. I've got diary entries at 7 years old talking about how I think my mom might have a mental disorder. I've explicitly written out the dialogue of fights between friends. I saved every love note from boyfriends, gay boyfriends, girl friends, and gay girlfriends, and even some ambiguous things between. There's so much laughter and sadness and naiveté...

Of all the things I've purged over the years, somehow I've known to hold onto this. If anybody is interested, I have kept whatever you've given me. It's brought back a lot of memories, good and bad. I can't wait to continue the memory trip. Some of it is so sad - I was a lonely child with a very dysfunctional home life, which I've written about extensively. I think it's a testament to where I've landed that I can look at this stuff and smile. And I know that even now, as I write this, an even older version of myself will someday look down upon it with compassion and humor.

I think it's time to bring some of this stuff into the 21st century. I've got some scanning to do. If anybody is interested in seeing what I've found, I'd be happy to share it with you. Otherwise, I'm not about to go kicking up sandpiles, so no worries there. Only the stuff involving my own personal struggles will be shared publicly. But there is a lot of content, spanning the funny to the tender, and often both. I think you will enjoy this. A new art project unfolds. It just might take me the whole decade. And then some...