Day 5--- Pack Rats....Guilty.

As I sit here today packing and unpacking and repacking and condensing for my move to LA. I think to myself? why the heck did i save this... as soon as i said that i knew what i was writing about today. Packrats. (actually thats a lie i was gonna write about vegetarians and felt i needed more time so i switched to this)... Anyways. Im a pack rat. SO, Im with you guys on this one. i save everything i lay my hands on, from ticket stubs to everything (movies, shows, sports, fairs, theme parks), to like tests from 2nd grade. Only the hundred percents though, they fill up a room on their own. Ive got cake toppings from birthdays, money from all over the world, ex girlfriends hair(ok that was a joke...or was it :) Its like im preparing for someone to write a biography about me and i want them to be able to have artifacts for a museum... I really want to know if any body else is with me on this. My parents always used to make fun of me, but since i was so good at organizing it I always got to keep it all... But here I am getting ready to move back across the country and Im looking at some of this stuff and wont throw away and Im wondering why i cant do it... Its like i have a fear of "1984" happening in real life and im gonna have no recollection of my past if i dont have it all in boxes. This one i think is fair but people still make fun of me. So I have about a thousand dvds or which take up like six boxes alone. And since Im moving this is kind of a pain in the butt. I know that if i threw away the boxes, which do me no good (except for alphabetizing), I could have like 3 big notebooks full that i could take everywhere i move much easier. and save me a ton in shipping costs. But I can not do it....

Is this a sickness? IS being a pack rat like a mental defect? Did I become this way because my parents took me to Chuck E Cheese's EVERY birthday until I was 16... I dont know. and its kinda freakin me out... I feel like one day when i get married (if anyone out there should be so lucky) We are gonna need a 3 bedroom house just so i can set up a shrine to myself.... OK that made it sound retarded... I just dont understand why i think i need a receipt for something i bought in 99' that i gave away in 03'...

The only thing i can think is that when i was younger i learned the value of old things, antiques, if i may... and so i always wanted to save my baseball cards or my toys so they would be like $40,000 GI:Joe... (and no that was not a plug for the movie i hear its awful)... Of course when my sister had the baby van i learned how much the old one went for i had to have hers. still do. kidding kidding. I guess I have to marry someone who either is one herself or doesnt mind devoting out basement to storage...

Is there anyone out there that can stage an intervention? or is it really more common than I think? Does anybody else miss having their birthday at Chuck E Cheese's?

Well, like the saying goes. Pack it pack it up pack it in...this is the end.