Laughing in the dust

I've been in denial.
Denial that I actually have to shift out of my cozy home of almost 10 years.
In fact, I'm the ONLY family member in the house who hasn't started packing yet.
And I only have about 3 weeks left before the new owners take over.

Well, today the bubble burst. I was forced to pack....my dad said to me during lunch,
"Eh girl, time to pack already ah!"
Bleahhhh...
So just a few hours ago, I sat down to complete "Phase 1" of my packing- my precious books.
("Phase 2" is for CDs). The most important items in my rm as you can see. heh! More impt than clothes I say. I tried to sort them according to categories- Shakespeare; Victorian 19th century; Modern Lit; Chrisitan Lit; Asian American etc. Reminded me of Andrea...who's another bibliophile. Cheers mate! ONE FINE DAY, I'll have my very own library ...with those classic floor to ceiling wooden bookshelves. :) Not sure if the ladder will be appropriate in Spore. heh!

Anyway...I digress. After packing away the precious books, I thought might as well sort through my pile of old letters/cards....that go all the way back to primary/sec sch days. Yes, Rie and May call me 'magpie'. I'm a horrible, sentimental hoarder. I struggle big-time with throwing things out.

So....along the way I had some surprise finds! The first item was a little book of quotations on prayer. It was from my ex-bf in NUS days. He wrote a pretty touching message on the inside of the book too. I was so not prepared for that...and kinda had a 'crumbly' moment as I shared with Audrey. Keep in mind that I actually spent many delightful hours exploring 2nd hand bkshops in Sydney, hunting for old books with messages inscribed inside (eg. from a husband to his wife; father to his son etc). I love books with their own ' life stories'.....:) Audrey and I are not sure why, but words just have such a powerful impact on us. sigh.

Later on, I also found some old drafts of letters to my ex.....a christmas card from him, and photos. I thought I had dumped it all away. We didn't part on good terms. But well....that kinda got me thinking: "do we ever stop loving someone?". I'm guessing we don't. Part of us, even if its a small part, will always have a soft spot for them. I find myself missing my ex now actually.....not romantically, but the friendship that we had. He was quite a fun guy.

On a lighter note, I also found a couple of old christmas cards from my JC frens- May, Rie.
In May's correspondences (from 1998), she referred to the joys of poking me (she still does it now), and she printed out the lyrics of tt crazy song "Insane in the brain", referring to it as 'gangsta rap' (we still sing it when we meet up now). I thought it was so incredibly hilarious, and I had a good time laughing in the dust.

You know what? Some things don't change. haha! And that is kinda comforting....