stuff. . .

some of the shock of the reality of life AFTER the wedding is setting in.  it came in the form of the realization that i have a whole apartment full of stuff.  and sam has a whole house full of stuff.  i was wrestling with the question - how are we going to make all of this stuff fit?  sam assures me that it is possible, and he has even been diligently trying to get his stuff organized and make extra space for me,  and yet i still have a bit of trouble really wrapping my mind around the idea of where all this stuff is going to go.  and for the past three years, every year, sometimes twice a year, i've gone through all my stuff and cleared out anything i could find to get rid of so that i could sell it at the monterey park garage sales.   at the last garage sale, i was a little hard pressed to find enough stuff to sell.  i think what happened is,  we've both been on our own for quite some time, and we have each acquired all the stuff one needs for living.  and then some.  and we are both creative types, which means that sam has a bunch of music stuff, and i have a bunch of art stuff, and we both have a bunch of stuff related to theatre and theatrical pursuits (like, say, tap shoes), and i work at home so i have a TON of office related stuff.  and did i mention that i have books? i have books out the ying yang.  three bookcases full.  i think i can get rid of some of them, but most of them i have because i know that they are really good, and i'm one of those people who refers back to books i've read.  especially if i'm speaking, writing or teaching.  but i have a frightening amount of books.  i'm sure i could probably get rid of a percentage of them if i put my mind to it, but there would still be a lot left.  and I just about have all the kitchen stuff that i need to make anything that i would try to make.  and egads, i have no idea how i wound up with so much bathroom stuff! seriously, i keep trying to use up bottles of cream and lotion and lip gloss, and it's like they multiply while i'm not looking!  how did i wind up with so much stuff? where did it all come from?  it boggles the mind.    i can’t foresee the future, of course, but i have a suspicion that if sam and i fight, we aren't going to fight over money or time, or the usual things like that.  no, our fighting may turn out to be the waging of little territorial wars as we try to find places to put all this stuff: who gets to have more real estate in the medicine cabinet and who should really throw their old what-ever-it-is out.  i can just see myself putting a masking tape line down the middle of the medicine cabinet and saying, " i get all the space on this side and you get all the space on that side, but my side's a little bigger, cuz i'm a girl."  and i can just imagine sam asking in frustration "do you REALLY need to have 5 bottles of shampoo in the shower?" and  me answering "it's NOT five bottle of shampoo, it's TWO sets of shampoo and conditioner, so that i can rotate products, and ONE bottle of dandruff shampoo  - just in case - and yes, as a matter of fact,  i DO need them all."  And I should be aware that the fact that i have six pairs of black boots may be some cause for alarm - who needs SIX pairs of black boots?!?  I do, apparently.  hopefully in the midst of all this we can take a minute to laugh about how absurd the whole thing is, and how we are lucky to have someone to share our stuff with, a place to put our stuff, or even to have stuff at all.