Material World: Well, whores will have their trinkets

The poster to your left arrived on my doorstep today, a gift from Justin who saw it online and knew that I “had to have it.” What makes this poster even more special is that the online print run was severely limited due to the production of the poster was specifically for an event (now passed) and as an autograph tool. My copy is currently still pristinely rolled up in its tube and I’m barely containing myself from fondling it.
Later, when I called Justin to thank him for this unexpected gift, we got to talking about my upcoming move to east side of the state and his plans to move to Chicago sometime in the next few years; “When the market bottoms out,” he says. One thing we discussed was the framing and placement of the poster, primarily noting that he did not bother to get one for himself and secondly, that he’s not a print kind of guy. Which brought the discussion over nesting and when one does and doesn’t nest. Our answers seemed to be in unison that in our current locations, our walls are devoid of anything personal. I, personally, have a stack of prints sitting in storage and now two other prints (the Spaced poster and a James Bond poster I bought while I was in the U.K.) that are still in their tubes, waiting to be aired in all their glory. And come to think of it, I have a lot of prints that I’ve gathered in my travels that still have not seen the light of day.

For roughly two months, all my things from my previously (ambitious) two bedroom apartment has been knocked down to fit into a single, tiny bedroom. Well that and the nearly 40 boxes of general crap that is currently in storage (aka the basement). I have virtually no furniture left (threw away my sexy purple couch, gave away my huge cherry wood dresser and sold a few of my big bookcases) and my habits have also changed as I’ve barely watched television (what is the point when my 30″ HD widescreen TV is, again, in storage) and I’ve also, interestingly enough, barely needed anything that is currently IN storage. The only exception to this rule is my kitchen gear and that is because no one in this household believes that even owning measuring cups is necessary. And my DVD and CD collection is also packed up (for the most part) and thus, other than my favorites which I kept out for viewing pleasure and since my CDs have all been ripped to MP3s, this later part isn’t a huge issue.
(One issue is that due to the size of the room, I keep playing Tetris to keep everything tidy and organized. I can’t just “dump” something somewhere, it will get in the freakin’ way!)
At the heart of the matter is my inability to get rid of “things,” items, and trinkets that I’ve collected over the years and have dragged with me from place to place (cross-country a number of times). One one hand, I clearly do not need the stuff I drag with me from place to place if I can survive without it for long periods of time (and seemingly forget half of the stuff I’m lugging around) but on the other hand, this same stuff is also a part of my history and helped shaped the person I am today and who I will be tomorrow and every day after that.
One of my goals this summer was to re-go through all of my boxed stuff and pare down even more for the move in a few months. I haven’t done this yet, though I should, and I think it’s something I really am looking forward to doing. Maybe I’ll finally ditch some of the stuff that is holding me back, or perhaps, maybe I won’t.