The Benefits of Being a Pack Rat

Today my dog, Ellie, and I were sitting at my Tulsa home busy doing...absolutely nothing. I remembered my mom had mentioned that she found a box in the attic labelled "Becky's stuff: DO NOT THROW AWAY." I decided this very boring December afternoon was the perfect time to find said box. And so I did. Here is where my attic adventure took me:

On my way to the box in question, I found another fun box. What was inside? Every single beanie baby I ever owned. If you look closely you can see that I made each BB a personalized beaded necklace with his or her name on it. I really liked beanie babies.

I also found my old American Girl Locker. Sadly I don't actually know where my dolls Felicity and Amanda are, but I do know where their things are. I'm totally forcing my daughters to play with all these cute things even though they'll be doll antiques by the time said daughters are in existence.

A snowman pillow I made. Cute, right? It's now proudly sitting with me on the couch.

Now onto the good stuff: the "Becky's Stuff: DO NOT THROW AWAY" box

I laughed so loud at the contents of the folder I had labeled "My Men" that Ellie ran into the room to see what was up. In one pocket of the folder I found posters of some of my secondary crushes (Shane West, Hayden Christensen, Chad Michael Murray, Orlando Bloom, etc). The other pocket was dedicated solely to my #1 crush: Joshua Daniel Hartnett. Shocked to learn that I know Josh Hartnett's middle name? Don't be. To say I was "slightly obsessed" with him in middle school is a huge understatement. Here's some background on my Josh infatuation...I saw Pearl Harbor 8 times in the theater; I had a videotape called "The Josh Tape" with every single one of his press appearances recorded on it; my friend made me a special Josh binder with his picture all over it and gave me little mirrors so I could look into the mirrors and my face would be next to Josh's; for my senior spring break trip I wanted to journey to Minnesota where Josh lived so I could track him down and we could fall madly in love; I had a PURSE with his face on it. And in case you need any further proof that I'm a freak, here is a taste of what I found in the Josh section of the "My Men" folder.

I'd like to spotlight a few things in this photo: the Valentine my friend made me from Josh in the middle, the Josh Hartnett book (who knew he had a book?!) in the top left corner and the sheet of Josh Hartnett stickers in the bottom left.

These are all the magazines (yes, all 24 of them) I purchased because there was some mention about Josh in them. Pitiful.

Oh adolescence. Thank goodness that's over with. Unfortunately I'm still widely known as "the girl who was obsessed with Josh Hartnett" by tons of people who witnessed this obsession first hand. Don't know if I'll ever shake that reputation. I guess I can test it in 6 years at my high school reunion.

At Jenks Wild (a camp my school's entire 6th grade population went to for a long weekend), this baby was my pride and joy. We got beads for completing certain tasks or behaving well. The bear claw was the envy of the entire camp; only for the truly outstanding 6th graders who did something super awesome. I got mine because I came to camp even though I was sick. Looking back, did I deserve to be championed for possibly spreading illness around to all of 6th grade? Probably not.

A pack of Kleenex my friend brought me back from the Salt Lake City Olympics. That makes this particular pack of Kleenex 8 years old. Really Becky? Really? This is one find I'm more embarrassed than proud of.

Two books I submitted for a writing contest in 3rd and 4th grade. Instant classics.

My favorite baseball cap. So fashionable. It doesn't fit my head anymore, but Ellie seemed to like it.

My vest from Brownies. So tiny!

Other highlights of my attic looting included:
--Tons and tons of notes from middle school and beyond
--A mini tea set in a little picnic basket
--A sweatshirt from when I went to cheerleading nationals in 2nd grade
--4 birth certificates for Build-a-Bears
--My Little Dribblers uniform
Story to go along with this uniform: I only played basketball for one season because I was HORRIBLE. How horrible? The only basket I ever scored was for the other team. No, I'm not kidding.
--Little bottles of sand from Destin and St. John
--Various tennis and piano trophies/medals
--My 4th grade teacher's wedding announcement
--The first book I ever read: Green Eggs and Ham
I took this book and hid under a clothing rack at Toys R Us while my mom was in line at the check out. After successfully reading it by myself, I walked up to my mom and announced my accomplishment. So she bought it for me.  :-)
--My best friend's sister's graduation program from 2005. Do I have my graduation program? My best friend's? My sister's?  Nope. But I have Leigh Anne's. I have no explanation. Except for the fact that I'm a pack rat.

When my mom came home from work she tried to convince me to throw away some of this stuff. I just couldn't bring myself to do it, though. And so my afternoon ended when I put everything back in its place and returned the box to its attic perch. The trashcan is empty, the box is full, and I'm in an incredibly good mood. This random collection of knick knacks is guaranteed to be hours of entertainment in another 10 years when I re-deiscover the "Becky's Stuff: DO NOT THROW AWAY" box.

Once a pack rat, always a pack rat.