Miracles do happen y'all. I am awake and not hungover. Can't yet speak for The Nicest.

No hangover here either. New Orleans miracle.

I hate you both so, so much right now.

I'm sorry that such a hard thing was made even harder, Theodosia.

Aw, kitty. I'm sorry, Theo.

I'm so sorry, Theo.

I'm so sorry, Theo.

Theo, that is horrible. I'm so sorry.

Theo, I'm so sorry. It's so hard. Good-bye, Minet, you were a fine cat.

My sister let me know around noon that she and her BF would be coming to my place around 5:30 to eat dinner and watch the game. Oh really? You couldn't have told me that yesterday? When I was on the phone with you stressing about how messy my house is? Fine. No, I'm glad to have them over; it's fine. I needed some incentive to clean up anyway. And since she doesn't have cable, I should've known they'd either be at my house or the Wings restaurant, and she doesn't want to sit at a sports bar for five hours. So I'm cleaning. It's fine.

Not only is it Not Needed, it is Actively Negative. How do I know this? You're stressing about it! And none of it is necessary for your current well-being.

David, you are Right, of course. But it isn't just the deciding to toss, it's the physical and mental effort required to do the tossing. That's where I lose my spoons.

I'm sorry, Theo. How's his mom doing?

I'm so sorry, Theo. It's never easy, but it shouldn't ever have to be that difficult.

We lived in the house my parents built, the house I grew up in, the house where H and I raised our kids. After we moved my mom into AL, it was time to clear out decades of stuff. I have never been so grateful for H and StY for sorting through all her and my dad's stuff, hauling most of it off to either the landfill or Goodwill without me ever having to see it or deal with it. They kept the things I'd mentioned that I wanted to deal with, a few pieces I kept, the rest I gave to a friend with an ebay store. She sold it, we split the take, she did all the listing monitoring, packing and shipping. Anything she was still holding after a year was hers, entire.

The thing was, if it had been left up to me, I'd still be doing it. Aside from pure procrastination, everything I touched would have required a decision. And I don't have another lifetime to decide the fate of the set of click-clack blocks from the Arizona tourist trap bought when I was eight, and hundreds of other items of equal importance. It was great having someone deal with it all for whom it had no significance.

If you're facing a houseful of "family items" from older generations, it might be worth hiring someone who deals with hoarding. Or calling in a picker, or several, to go through, remove, and pay you a small amount for anything they can take and sell themselves, either on ebay, or to antiquers. Letting go of the notion that picture frame is worth hundreds of dollars, to get it out of your space and $6.00 in your hand, brings lots of peace of mind.

Yes, condition matters(I know too much about that stuff, even though I'm not interested in it) I miss fun. I hardly ever have any anymore and that's sad. I have things I literally don't know how to best get rid of(Old peripherals, discs, broken electronics) Some I've even moved)