Socks, a Box, and a Black Notebook

When you begin a deep cleaning (closets, drawers, boxes) in your home, whether it's a house, RV or apartment, you never start thinking about all the stuff you will discover. It's never the plan. Never. And why is this? Because we delude ourselves, we convince ourselves that we're organized, especially if everything is hidden behind closed doors, closed drawers or sealed boxes.

And then...

Well, then, once we open the doors, drawers and boxes, we face the truth. We're not organized at all. If I were to list all the things I 'found' when I started cleaning, you would be appalled. Appalled, I say, and more than likely a little uneasy about my sanity. Who actually needs thirty-seven sticky pads. That's enough notes to plan the D-Day invasion. In color.

Safety pins. I have enough safety pins to hold up every bra strap in America. Are you old enough to remember when a pinned bra strap was the height of slovenliness? Only a total failure in the halls of womanhood would ever need a safety pin. And yet. Here I confess to having boxes, Ziploc bags, actual sealed, never-even-been-opened packages of safety pins. Not just tiny ones, but even big enough pins to substitute as diaper pins. And most folks don't even use cloth diapers anymore so that tells you something about my past. Because my children came along before disposable diapers. I wonder if the young know what a diaper pin is?

Then there are the pens. In this day and age where no one writes--at least not with a pen--I have four, no five mugs on my desk jammed with pens. Those are just the ones I've found in random drawers, boxes, bags... I'm not even sure how many of them still work. That will be a project for another day.

But along the way, I found a prize or two. One was a wooden box. It's a small box my son made for me many years ago when he was in high school. I'm one of those parents who hangs on to everything my children ever produced, starting with their kindergarten years. This box is the perfect size to hold pens. Unfortunately, I'm one of those individuals that totally forget about something if I can't see it, so stashing pens in the box isn't a good idea. However! It's the perfect size for all those tiny little Post-it! notes (you know--the ones that you use to jot down a phone number and name). So that's where I've stashed those. I charge you all with remembering, just in case I can't lay my hands on them the next time someone gives me a phone number.

The other thing I found was a black notebook. I'm not describing the cover, but the paper inside. They were all the rage quite a while ago...maybe twenty years ago? You were supposed to use special gel pens in light colors to write on the black paper. I no longer have any gel pens (and clearly should have an intervention--according to my friend, Amarinda--if I think about buying any more pens). From this distant perspective, I can't remember the attraction, but I still can't bring myself to throw it out. Once I queried my friends on the Internet, they eagerly came up with lots of solutions for my lack of gel pens. So, I'm happy to announce my gel pen problem is solved if I should ever have any reason to use the black notebook.

Now! On to the socks. My hundred pairs of socks are not enough. Really. I did give some to my granddaughters. But I crave socks. It's an addiction. Lest Amarinda attempts a sock intervention, I've devised a solution. I will knit my socks. That will slow down the rate of acquiry. I have baskets and baskets of yarn. I could even knit socks for other people. Yes...this is an excellent solution. Who would dare refuse a pair of hand-knit socks? Below is the first sock. Two days to knit (while watching Midsomer Murders in the evening). Behold the sock!