Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Yup. Still cleaning.

Among today's finds:

April 19th, 2004
Dear Simrun,

Here is something to help make the day a little easier. Know that I'm thinking of you and wishing I were there with you.

There is a light at the end of this tunnel and I can promise you that you will feel less lonely when you have finished this step of the journey. I believe in you. I believe you can do special things.

Don't give up when the end is so near. Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger and this task will be worth its weight in gold.

I would never stand by and watch you endure something I thought was bad for you. Never.

**Sent via messenger with a thermos of piping hot Moroccan mint tea and a box of Swiss chocolate.

Where is a guy like that while I'm in med school : )?

Oh, and as I recall - he was right. The task was well worth it's weight in precious metal.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Archaeological Artifacts

You might be wondering what on EARTH I’ve been doing to occupy myself now that I’m not taking Anatomy. No? Shame, ‘cause I’m going to talk about it anyway…..

First of all, I never mentioned how the summer started. Although, I feel a separate entry for that is definitely in order. So, how about I back track later, eh?

Aside from working here and there for a temp agency, I’ve been doing an INSANE amount of cleaning and organizing of the years of my life that got stuck at my parents’ house. And, for those of you who don’t know – that’s quite a few calendars to plough through. Consider that I’ve essentially lived away from home (not counting school vacations) since I was 14 (I went to boarding school for High School, soooo….you do the math).

This brings me to the fact that I’ve discovered some wondrous things in my archaeological exploration of artifacts like boxes that remained still packed in the garage from my move back to CA from New York…apparently I ditched some randoms with the rents sans opening before booking it for LA. It seems I wrote a lot. Or, I sorta scribbled a fair amount. Oh, and I used to save random letters and cards that people gave me. Well, not totally random ones, but things that had some sort of meaning at the time. This has turned out to offer incredible insight. Although, it has been clutter inducing - a fact which I am now remedying, thank you very much.

Letters from my parents offering words of encouragement during tough times, letters from the very same parents admonishing their delinquent daughter, Valentine's Day cards of note, anything from my brother, birthday cards with witty wording, remnants of former trysts....

I found a card from someone that I dated briefly but remain friends with to this day, and am coincidentally having lunch with next week. It was an apology for missing my birthday party one year. After reading it, and noting that it was dripping with sarcasm, I couldn’t stop smiling. I remembered exactly the events that took place that led to the writing of that note. I am tempted to show it to him when I see him. We’ve both come a very long way since the ink went onto that card.

There were many more such tidbits that fell out of the most random places. In another box, this one from the top shelf in my closet, I found an old journal of mine. The first few pages described my sentiments towards someone that has, until a few hours after I read the entry, haunted me for more than a decade. The epiphany that came from seeing a reflection of my former self was that I was in the same place with that person as I had been for 13 years. Suddenly, I could acknowledge what had previously been impossible- It was simply not meant to be, nor should it be. I haven’t felt this free since the day before the two of us met.

I found a hilarious piece of evidence that I did in fact have some semblance of a friendship with a member of my extended family that I let myself believe I never had. Yet, there it was, in an all too humorous printed copy of an email from her to myself and two other people expressing her angst at having to deal with her parents giving her the “marriage talk” over a perfectly innocent inquiry into when would be a convenient time for her to book her flight to such and such a place. Seems unrelated, right? Indian parents are unbelievably capable of turning just about anything into a marriage talk once you are over the age of 20. I wish I were kidding.

Right.

Back to the boxes. Did I tell you about the one from an ex-boyfriend that broke up with me in a handwritten letter (sent via messenger to my place of work) that compared our relationship to the Sword of Damocles? No?

Well, I had to Google “Sword of Damocles” to even get a clue what he was talking about.

But, that’s also a story for another time.

‘Night kids.