Yard sale

My neighborhood is having a yard sale Saturday and I am getting rid of a bunch of stuff. Not just any stuff, mind you, but traveling stuff. This is stuff that has been to Missouri from Arizona, back to Arizona, then back to Missouri again. Expensive stuff, that is, in road miles and mini-storage.

Why do I hang on to stuff? Part of it is a connection with the past. Much of what I'm keeping after honing down to as little stuff as I can stand, was my mother's. The rest of the it are things I've picked up over the years in flea markets and antique stores. I have two new pieces of furniture, a mattress and a couch (which I bought from my boyfriend's generous gift of all his saved change). Everything else is second-hand and well-loved. Well, my desk and file cabinets were new 14 or 15 years ago, to be rigorously honest.

So it's time to, as my sponsor suggested, take a physical inventory and part with things. Friday I'm spending the day sorting and pricing. Want to help? How much should a ten year-old black dog cost? Just kidding, Romy! Romy? Come back here! I was . . .

School starts this afternoon; I'm taking a four-week course in organizations. That should be swell. Tuition will rise by 19 percent this fall at my school. I can't believe the college is that badly mismanaged that they have to raise tuition by that great amount. It's going to price a lot of students right out of school.

Until tomorrow, 2 dogs are waiting for their walkies.