Housecleaning

I spent my Saturday cleaning out my storage room, throwing out all the junk I had accumulated over the years, and bagging up any old clothes I found to donate to charity. This was the first time in over 10 years I've done this, and you can imagine how much junk had piled up. Four years ago when I moved to America from Canada, I hadn't had time to go through it and took a bunch of junk with me, and two years ago when I moved to New York I couldn't believe how many boxes of stuff they had loaded into the moving truck. I think I may be moving again next summer, and I don't want to be paying a moving company to move a bunch of junk I don't want. So, today was housecleaning day.

It's amazing the sorts of things you find when you clean out your storage room. I found a couple of pictures of the ex-girlfriend I had dated before I met my wife - it's the first time I've seen her face for about five years now. When you're in love, I think it's like you're seeing the person through rose-coloured glasses: I had always thought of my ex-girlfriend as very pretty when she and I were dating, but when I look at her pictures now, she doesn't look all that pretty anymore, especially when I compare what she looks like to my wife.

I threw out so much stuff today, I completely filled up one of the dumpsters outside my apartment complex (I'm sure the other tenants will be really happy with me tomorrow - at least they probably won't know who piled up all the junk in the dumpster).

Earlier today, I went out for a drive and saw a bunch of protesters. There is a busy street corner close to my house where every Saturday afternoon there is a war protest. On one side of the street, you have the pro-war protesters waving around signs like "Support our Troops", and on the other side of the street you have anti-war protesters waving signs like "Leaders Lie, Soldiers Die", "End Iraq Occupation", "Dump Bush", and "Honk for Peace". This protest and counter-protest has been going on every Saturday afternoon for almost two years, ever since the Iraq war started. When I drove past today, I had my windows down, and as I drove past the corner I heard someone yell, "hey ASSHOLE!" For a second, I thought he was calling to me, until I realized it was one of the anti-war protesters yelling an insult at one of the pro-war protesters across the street. For me, I remember these protests when they first started, and I find it amazing they're still going on two years later. I can understand someone protesting about an issue for a day or two if he/she felt strongly enough about it, but for someone to give up their Saturday afternoons every week for two years to hold a protest takes a lot.