October 21, 2000

Well, I can cross off Steps 1 and 2 of HOUSE-OFF 2000 (if you'd joined the mailing list, you'd already know what I was talking about). Actually, I could probably squeeze in another round of each of those steps. But. But, now you can actually walk around my guest room. It's still more or less a giant closet with a loft bed, but you can see a great deal of the floor now, and I call that progress.

But even as I was rooting out all this stuff for the garage sale pile, the UPS guy was giving himself a hernia bringing me packages. Admittedly, a good chunk of it is Christmas presents (I already have a nice pile of them wrapped & tagged), but still. A good chunk of it wasn't.

So. I've decided enough is enough. I've made a list. This is a list of things I may not buy for one year. Of course, I may still receive them as presents. And I do get to take November 2 off. I actually made this list last weekend, but since I haven't told everyone until now, I gave myself a little leeway. Meaning I bought a subscription to Eightball, some more old BH&G cookbooks and some makeup--but those were my only transgressions the whole week. Things I've purchased within the last month are marked in red:

• Juice glasses (unless they are old or unless they have something very special screened on them)
• Highball glasses
• Underwear and bras
• Socks
• Handbags
• Candles
• Makeup, unless I run out of something specific.
• Little bitty bowls
• Knives
• Pots and pans
• Tupperware
• Bed linens
• Fabric
• Tank shirts
• Sneakers
• Cookbooks
• Duplicates that I buy on sale for as nonspecific future presents, unless they are 75% or more off
• Picture Frames
• Pillows
• Moisturizer, lotion, powder, shampoo or conditioner (I could live off my Rebate Club stockpile for two years, easy).
• Kitchen Linens
• Stationary
• Kitchen utensils
• Duplicates of toys
• Subscriptions
• House plants
• Stickers
• Wine glasses

Another self-deprivation game I'm playing is seeing how long I can go without going to the grocery store. If you exclude produce and eggs, I'll bet I could live for at least 6 months off of what I have (and that's being modest) and still eat fairly well. Outside of my embarassing Y2K stockpile, I always have a pantry and freezer that are stuffed to overflowing.

So now I'm avoiding the grocery store for everything but Out of the Frying Pan. (I'm going to get tomatillos tonight for the Grady Spears enchiladas we had in our cooking class, but I'm making them with leftover turkey, so even for Out of the Frying Pan, I'm abiding the spirit of the game.) Now I'm out of mayo & only have nonfat mayo left, yuck. I'll consider eating it doing penance for being stupid enough to buy fatfree mayo.

When I was unpacking garage sale stuff, I found 3 high school notes from my old friend Jared. They were hilarious and made me wish I had all my old notes (I saved a lot of them) here instead of at my folks' house (assuming they didn't toss them). Luckily, I found some diaries, starting in 1984, and I've been reading them voraciously. It's a little bit darling and a little bit terrifying how much the 30-year-old me has in common with the 14-year-old me.

10.09.00