wow, I never thought of myself as a packrat until today!
since I got a laptop and will probably be using that the majority of the time, my dad claimed the desktop computer as his so we were moving it downstairs so he can use it in his 'soccer office'.
This led us both to figuring out what we wanted and what we could change to make everything better. I decided I wanted the old desk from the basement. i wanted to put it in the closet alcove of my old bedroom (currently my office), but my moog synthesizer organ was there.... but it's been broken for a while, and I've given up on both organ as well as the idea of owning an antique piece of electronic music development history.
With that said... if someone feels very passionately about the 1960/70's development of keyboard synths, then get in touch. It's only 200/300 some pounds of clunky goodness.... so dad and I had fun dragging it out to the garage. Once that was out of the way, I had to remove all of my junk from the desk that was to move downstairs.... this was the beginning. so many reciepts from the past 5 years, high school grad pictures, business cards, phone numbers and phone messages written down to be ignored for many years, kinder surprise toys, elastic bands... you name it... there was so much shit there and it felt great to throw it all out/recycle. Even before that, the organ and the desk were also piled up with piles and piles of paper. I kid you not, random printed out sheet music (everything from the given sonatas and etudes all the way to lead sheets from when I went to Jazz camp in grade 10). Paperwork that I didn't care about, but knew was too important to throw out at the time - application papers for university of winnipeg and manitoba, high school transcripts... wow, flyers, pamphlets, phone lists... messages again... but this time its all in 8.5/11 size..
I must have filled up 5 shopping bags of paper to be recycled. I actually found a stack of xmas cards from 2001 that I was supposed to deliver for a friend of mine that was in Germany at the time.... Oopsie, sorry Kyle.
Anyway, I made huge progress on the room today, but there is still tons that I can clean out of there. It was so cathardic to throw away so much stuff - I'm not sure if I'm moved more by the symbolism of getting rid of the things in the past I was unwilling to let go of... or more realistically the fact that I have so much more space available and I can feel organized now. It is a good feeling to know that I've gone through everything that is now in that desk and decided that it is worth keeping and deciding where to put it to best serve it's purpose. Other times, when I move things around, I would just shift piles of that paper and hope it was still important.
Now, with the old desk gone, and anothe roller thingy gone... I have a lot more room in there and it looks like it. Right now it is incredibly badly laid out, lopsided... so I am going to shift things around tomorrow. My wide bookshelf is going to be in the centre of the long wall, and the two smaller bookshelves are going to be angled in two corners of the room . The computer and desk are in the alcove and I have the keyboard just outside the alcove so I can get to it when I am composing. I think I'm going to bring in a chair that I can sit in and read in what will now be my office/ library! Ooh, I'm far too excited about this!
Thus, the moral of the story is that I cleaned a lot and while it might be good to keep a check on my life and clean things out as they go along, I enjoy the experience of mass disposal!

Now, other things of the weekend. This was the official weekend where my sister and her fiancé Gareth showed us the ring and spent a lot of time with us as a family. They took us out to Ichiban for Japanese Tepanyaki cooked food! I actually ate some raw fish and lived to tell, and the food in general was wonderful, and Sake!!!!! OMG i love it! It was a great evening and it was wonderful to see Heather and Gareth together, they are soo happy and they make a wonderful couple, I could not be happier for them!

Last night was Fiona's birthday and that was wonderful also.
All in all, a wonderful long weekend! I'm excited to get on with this week and start back at school.
Tomorrow I have to get blood tests done at the HSC and get a bus pass from school and then buy a wireless router so I can set up my wireless network tomorrow! yaya!