Cleaning out my parents' basement

January 7, 2007 - This afternoon, I was kinda forced by my mom to go through all my junk in the basement. When we moved to North Markham about 2 years ago, I had about 40 boxes (yup, 40!) of stuff - but only 20 boxes or so were eventually unpacked. So I took a couple of hours today to go through the remaining 20 boxes (I only managed to get through 5 boxes though) and see what I want to throw out.

I have to say the chore was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. I had no idea I have so much stuff down there. I also found a lot of stuff from when I was growing up that certainly brought me back to a time when things were a little simpler. Among the items that I fished out from the basement:

- My journal from fifth grade: my favourite part was when I wrote about my trip to L.A. and Disneyland. Couldn't have captured my excitement of meeting Mickey any better! hehe (and yes, I was a pretty bad speller back then too).

- A ticket to the top of the World Trade Centre in NYC when I visited it for the first time when I was 13. I wonder if that's going to be worth any $ now.

- My journal from my junior high and high school years: again, wow - nothing like reading about your own teenage angst 10 years later. The thing that made me laugh the most were the large number of entries about girls :S

- My karate certificates and belts: too bad I can't remember any of the moves. I did find a nice picture of myself in full uniform after receiving my yellow belt though. I think I was 12 or 13 then.

- My high school notes: boy, was I a nerd back then or what (still am I guess)? I had the most fun reading my French notes, since I couldn't believe how good I was back then (now, my French is restricted to the usual bonjour and comment ca va?)

- My stuffed dog from when I was a baby (picture above): I found it stuffed inside a box. The poor doggy was my favourite toy when I was a a kid. It needs to be washed though - but it's going on my bookshelf at home!

- My mixed tapes from 8th and 9th grade: ahh, remember those good old days before mp3s and cds?

- My postcard collection: it was fun reading all the postcards that I made my friends send me when they went on vacation.

Too bad I still couldn't find my GGR323 notes nor my notes from when I was the TA for the course! Well there are still more boxes to go through I guess - so perhaps next weekend?