Cleaning Out My Closet

This was a great holiday weekend.  Not talking about Valentine's Day, though.  I spent Valentine's Day watching cartoons and going to bed early.  No, I got stoked for PRESIDENTS Day, because I got the day off from work and finally got around to doing some of the cleaning I've been putting off since Christmas.

Now that I have a great big unfinished basement, my parents decided it was time for me to start storing my OWN crap.  So they sent me home with boxes of old... stuff, in addition to the usual leftovers and giant totes of toilet paper (it's a Christmas tradition).  So I went through the boxes on the morning of the 17th, just to see what I wanted to keep around.  Turns out there was... a lot of stuff I'd completely forgotten about.

So now it's time to look at the me from roughly ten years ago and laugh at what a silly boy that guy was.  You're welcome, Internet!

Take, for example, these photos from all of the high school dances I attended, including the photo from that really ill-advised night when we all decided it would be "super fun" to go out in a big group with someone who WASN'T our boyfriend/girlfriend.  "High school" me, by the way, was an idiot.

Oh, hey, it's a couple of unsold copies of the CD I cut with the a capella group I sang with in high school.  Joy!

On Track 4, my voice cracks.

Speaking of embarassing musical incidents from my adolescence:  When I was in high school, I was convinced that I'd be writing or arranging music for the rest of my life.  I picked up some bits of sheet/choral music which I thought I'd use for inspiration.

It's great to see which music I thought would be timeless back in 2000, like Riverdance and Smashmouth.

Not pictured:  The binder full of guitar tabs I printed from the library for the same purpose.  By the way, I do not now, nor have I ever, played the guitar.

Here's a fun one - while serving my mission for the LDS Church in the Czech Republic, I found this deck of playing cards with pictures and quotes from some of the most famous silver screen actors and actresses.  Best part of this set?  The box with the disclaimer that says, "Not for sale in the U.S. or Canada."

Another acquisition from the mission:  three issues of Donald Duck comics in Czech.  Oddly enough, at least one of the stories in these collections was re-released in an English language collection I picked up about two years ago.  I started reading the book, and trying to figure out where the heck I'd read that particular Donald Duck story before was AGONIZING, especially since I didn't recognize any of the dialog.

Eventually, I came across a box of stuff from my junior high years.  Here's a coin bank one of my friends gave me for Christmas.  At one point, there were probably some valuable coins in here.  Now they're all pennies.  I might take them to the bank some day if I ever get REALLY DESPERATE for an extra $5.50.

Finally, there's this collection of all of the written homework I completed in 9th Grade English class, including a collection of poetry with lines like, "There's a demon following me," and, "In my darkest nightmares, I see a world trapped in the fire."

You know, lyrics that make Skillet sound subtle.