My Small Stack of Stuff

It's been awhile since I posted anything, for several reasons. It's summer, so my house has a revolving door (straight out to the pool!), we're traveling a lot, and I confess I just don't have the nerve yet to actually write for the whole world to read everything that's really going on inside me. But, I'll give you this tiny peek, and maybe you'll relate.

My writer's block has been more like an impenetrable wall for the past six months. I am, however, determined to take a manuscript with me to the fall writer's conference, so I decided to register for the conference today. (Surely that pressure will jumpstart my writing engine.) I've tried several times searching the internet for a specific conference with no luck, so I decided to dig up the business card my daughter gave me of a fellow-writer I have never met. I thought she had scribbled the website of the conference on the back of the card, which would save me a lot of time and trouble.

So, I grabbed the stack of small stuff out of my desktop organizer, which is where I keep all the little things I'm not quite sure what to do with. It's the kind of junk I don't need immediately, but can't justify throwing away. My habit is to leave it all there until I'm positive I have no use for it (or either the inspiration or expiration date passes), and then I don't feel so guilty about throwing it away later. Do you have stuff like that? I'm always proud I have a place and a routine for it! It makes me feel better about my procrastination and indecisiveness.

My stack of small stuff is such a window into my life. Here's what I found: On top was a $15 gift card for iTunes from Christmas. That would probably drive my kids crazy if they knew I had it and never used it. I just didn't relate to that kid silhouetted on the front jamming to his i-pod air guitar-style with his leg kicked up over his head. I can't get my leg up that far anymore.

Next was my Northwest and Delta reward cards. Since I rarely fly either of those airlines, I'm pretty sure the cost of the plastic cards cost more than any benefit I'll ever receive from them, but they just seem too valuable to toss. Must be that credit card look.

Then I have my membership cards for a couple Counseling organizations. I don't need to carry them around all the time, but I need to keep them. By the way, while these are far more valuable to me than the airline cards, they're only paper; go figure.

Of course, there were several hotel and retail reward cards as well. I call these stress cards. They always promise big savings or double discounts, but I'm always a purchase or two away, or the date isn't quite right, or I leave paying full price, only to discover I actually had the number of punches that would have saved me $100, if I only would have remembered that tiny little card! I began boycotting these cards a few years ago when my blood pressure began to rise. I attributed it to these nasty little retail head games. Of course, I still punish myself by keeping them.

Finally, there were several expired coupons for things I was sure the grandkids would need, this random miniature software CD for some program on my computer I never use, an old health insurance card, and two business cards. One of them belonged to a guy that promised me a book contract (which never happened), and the other was the fellow writer I was looking for (which did not have the web address I needed on the back).

So, after an hour of unsuccessfully digging through my small stack of stuff, I was back to square one on registering for the conference and moving toward my writing goals I've been sluggishly avoiding. Frustrated, I gathered the small stack of stuff (minus the expired coupons), and found I had missed an item. It was a membership card for Royal Caribbean's cruise rewards. I sure did put it right on top. Maybe a cruise is exactly what I need!