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August 4, 2005

I have this weird tendency to use things until they are 95% depleted and then never touch them again. I do this with all kinds of different things: candles, pens, pads of paper, leftover dinner.

I feel the need to 'save' them because I cannot bear to see them completely gone, to throw them away.

Sitting in my office right now is: a large Vintage Merlot (trademark) candle with 3mm of wax (I do not know if that is enough to keep it lit because I refuse to light it and find out -- if it doesn't burn then I have to throw it out); a small pad of graph paper with three pieces still attached; a pink and a lime green pen with negilible amounts of ink; In Case of Emergency chap stick that I am guarding with my life.

Larger things I can throw away. Actually, I can get rid of just about anything else. Just not these small items I love to use. And I'm okay with this.

But I wonder if I would be able to let these little things go had Melissa not died.

2 Comments

Valette?

No. You'd still be a mini-packrat. That's a little like saying "I wonder if I'd have burnt my toast this morning if she were still here." or "I wonder if it'd still be 3:00 if she were here."

It's unrelated. Well, unless she liked to only use the last 5% of something, which is really kind of gross when you think about the chapstick.

But I am a much different person emotionally now than before she died. Her death changed my life in drastic and minute ways. I do not remember needing to keep two drops of ink in every pen I bought before then, and so maybe this is another effect of her death.

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Hi, I'm Valette

I'm a photographer based out of Anchorage, Alaska. I've recently become a wife, a stepmother, and a homeowner. Life is pretty awesome. You can email me anytime. Learn more...

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