The Pencil Klepto

I am a self-diagnosed Pencil Klepto. Whenever I see an unattended pencil/pen/highlighter lying on the ground, it's mine (especially if it's a Dixon Ticonderoga - those things have the best erasers). There are times when I'll empty out my pockets at the end of the day and I'll have upwards of a dozen pencils in my pockets. After a thorough cleaning of my car a few weeks ago I found about thirty pencils total hidden in all the various crevices. Right now I am in the middle of a large organizational/packing operation as I prepare to move to California, and I've been amazed at all of the caches of pencils I've found among my belongings:

As I mentioned one time, when I moved out here from Michigan I brought a number of boxes of stuff with me from my parents' house without really examining their contents. Three years later, there's still a lot of stuff in boxes underneath my bed that I haven't really looked at. Plus I'm such a sucker for free stuff (besides pencils) that I end up hanging on to stuff that I wouldn't otherwise want. In other words, I have too much stuff.

As I've been cleaning I've been thinking about all those cable shows about people who compulsively hoard things that my roommate Seth loves to watch. Whenever I watch with him and see the way that clutter can paralyze people's lives it makes me want to go into my room and get rid of thirty pounds worth of stuff. Moving is a great motivator to get rid of stuff and every time I pull the trigger and toss something in the garbage I feel so much lighter.

This post has turned out much longer than I planned and I'm hosting Brian Presents: Rebecca in a few hours (the final Brian Presents: of the Ann Arbor era - sniff, sniff), so I've got to get back to organizing/cleaning. Maybe I'll give away a bundle of pencils to everyone at Brian Presents:.

P.S. - As I've been packing/blogging I've had the cartoon version of Charlotte's Web on the TV in the background. Right now it's the scene where Templeton is going nuts eating all the garbage at the fair and I'm remembering a time when I was little and my whole family went to the Wilkinson's to watch BYU play in the Holiday Bowl. I went a little overboard eating my mom's "Marshmallow Munchies" and I felt sick all night. My sisters all called me "Templeton" for a while after that and it made me sooooo mad. But I'm over it now. See - I'm getting rid of emotional baggage too!