I love my tchotchkes. They all have stories and memories attached, though, or else they were given to me by someone I love. I got rid of all the candles when I moved, because cats, and I'm allergic to regular paraffin candles anyway. Now I have the LED candles that flicker and I like those a lot. Boxes, I am a collector of boxes. Most have nothing in them. I could weed out that group, and make better use of the remainder.

I found the best way to get rid of tchotchkes was to pack them all carefully in a box and put the box in the attic. When I looked at it again, two years later, at least half of it I'd forgotten I had; those went to Goodwill. The rest I brought out to enjoy, and packed away most of the current display. Rotating the tchotchkes keeps them fresh.

Very little of my stuff would be worth more than a few bucks on eBay. Not even worth the bother.

For Hubby, the knicknacks are his memories. He'll pull something out of a box, and then he's telling me about the time when he was 16 and sailing on a tall ship out of Hawaii to Singapore. His ability to remember things is so damaged that he needs the kickstart of things to access those memories. It's the stuff that he picks up and doesn't remember at all that makes me sad.

Another shooting. What the fuck is wrong with the world?

My sister just told me about that. Awful.

I love my tchotchkes. Plus, people give me random nifty tchotchkes and knicknacks because the item made them think of me.

Most of my tchotchkes are worth something on eBay. I could sell the lot for a couple hundred dollars.

Yeah, some of my stuff is like that. The Sandman statues, the Nightmare Before Christmas goodies, the snowglobe that was a promotional press kit item for the first Addams Family movie ...

Yes, moving is a nightmare for us.

Oh, that is terrible.

Less terrible, except to me personally, is that I thought I had rigged up a shelf for my window fan (the ledge isn't being enough), but I clearly didn't do it well enough, because the fan just fell on my head! Ah well. The concept is still right, I think -- just need better brackets.

Plus, people give me random nifty tchotchkes and knicknacks because the item made them think of me.

Heh. I think I told this story on FB, but not here. Last Sunday, we were at home, when we heard someone come on our front porch, heard the screen door open, heard a CLUNK, and then the door closed. I got up and looked out the window, and saw what I was pretty sure was Tim's best friend's minivan pulling away.

I opened the door, and there was a 12-pack of Mountain Dew dark berry flavor sitting there. Now, I don't drink Mountain Dew ANY flavor (and I hardly drink soda any more), and Tim doesn't ever drink soda, so I wasn't sure why his friend would do a drive-by Mountain Dew-ing.

Until I looked more closely at the 12-pack box, and realized it was a tie-in promo for The Dark Knight Rises, and had Batman on the box. Then I laughed FOREVER.

But the thing is, we still won't drink it, so I think Tim is going to take it to work. But I've started taking pictures of things like that, because I want to remember it, but I'm not keeping it. (Digital pictures means I don't even have to deal with a physical photo unless I want to print it.) I have pictures of the Avengers balloon Tim gave me for my birthday (once the helium...dissipated? what the hell does helium in a balloon DO? anyway, I didn't want to keep a deflated mylar balloon, cool though it is, so I took a picture of it), pictures of flowers he's given me, etc.

That way I can remember stuff like that without keeping Mountain Dew I won't drink, or dried flowers that eventually get crumbly and messy, or a deflated mylar balloon.

None of which is *quite* the same thing as tchotchkes, but in the same neighborhood.

Another shooting. What the fuck is wrong with the world?

Jesus, that's awful. Some reports are saying there could be as many as 20 people that were shot. I haven't seen anything about fatalities yet.

I realized the shelf came with hardware! Which I had left at the store. Went back, and am victorious.

I showered and got dressed so that I would feel compelled to go out and run errands, which I didn't do yesterday.

I'm not sure that worked though.