New Start to a New Year…

2008 packed quite a few punches for me…and not just sucker punches. There were a lot of really great things that happened last year, and I’m hoping that 2009 will continue to build on that. So where to start to make 2009 a year to remember? With a big move, of course!!

For the past 3 years, I’ve been living in a suburb of Seattle on the east side of the city–closer, in fact, to Bellevue (Seattle’s twin city across the lake) than to Seattle proper. The commute is horrific. Not to mention being a single, almost-30 year old gal living in the ‘burbs while all your friends are living in the city! Not fun. In addition to the location, a year and a half ago I decided that living alone was too expensive, so I moved back in with two roommates and their zoo of animals. And while it was a good idea at first (because my rent has been unbelievably low), the *ahem* DRAMA that has ensued…well, I’m just over it. For reals.

So for the past 3 weeks, I’ve been packing up all my stuff and on Thursday, I’m moving back into the city! I’ve hired some muscles to help me out, and I’m getting back out on my own. The location is PRIME, just a 20 minute bus ride downtown (hallelujah!), and only blocks away from Greenlake–one of Seattle’s best urban lakes w/ a 3 mile running trail around it. Perfect for my one and only 2009 New Year’s Resolution (more on that some other time).

Even the process of packing has been revealing, brining to light something about myself that I never realized before: I am a hoarder. Not a universal hoarder mind you– I’m not one of those people that will die, crushed under the weight of a giant pile of newspapers and coffee cans that have been piling up to the ceilings of my home. No, my hoarding is reserved for very specific items:

1. Towels: I don’t know what it is that makes me hang on to towels that I’ve had since the dawn of man, but I do. That’s not to say that I don’t buy new towels–but for whatever reason, I don’t get rid of the old ones when the new ones arrive in the linen closet.
2. Lotion: Mini bottles that I’ve swiped from hotels; large Costco-sized bottles that no one on earth could possibly hope to use before it either went ‘bad’ or they got sick of the smell; horrific smelling, bright pink goo that was gifted at a birthday or Christmas who knows how many years ago. I have bottles of lotion just meant for your knees, your hands, your heels, your elbows, your face, your ears, your big toe…you name it. If there’s a lotion made for a specific body part, or concocted using a unique scent profile, I’ve got it.
3. Sylvester Stallone movies. I’m a HUGE Stallone fan, and I’m proud to admit that I own almost every movie he’s ever made on DVD. I even discovered a Rocky III poster hidden in the back of my closet.
4. Bibles (and books about the Bible). I think I have a copy of every translation of the Bible there is. From the NRSV, the NLV, the NKJ to The Message, if someone out there has figured out a new way to interpret the original Greek or Aramaic texts, then I’ve got a copy. In addition, if you ever wanted to know why bad things happen to good people, how and why to pray, or if there’s any Biblical truth behind Dan Brown’s bestseller The Da Vinci Code, chances are good there’s something in my library that can enlighten you on the subject.
5. Books of matches. I have an entire shoebox full of just matchbooks. If I go out to eat, and the hostess stand has a bowl of matchbooks on it, I’ll take more than one. I have matchbooks from locations as diverse as the 7-11 down the street, to a restaurant a friend and I ate at in Edinburgh.

Needless to say, I’m ready to usher in the New Year with a brand new start. So goodbye stinky lotions! Farewell, old towels–I have no need for thee! My new life back in the city starts on Thursday, and I don’t want all the old junk to be cluttering it up. As for the Stallone movies and the Bibles? They’re coming with me.

Oh, and the matches. Because who knows when I’ll decide to finally torch all the Jesus books…