Bauer Turbo ice hockey skates.

I had a brief infatuation with ice hockey during my freshman and sophomore years at Boston University. I believe I was able to take hockey skating as an elective class, and I think it was .5 credit. I guess that happens when you attend one of the biggest hockey schools in the country. And I think we were pretty good those couple of years.

I, however, was not so good, nor am I much more capable on ice skates now. But it was nice to live in that fantasy world of slapshots and one-touch passes, holding onto a dream that maybe one day I would be talented enough to jump into a weekend league or the occasional pick-up game. That never happened.

By the end of college I traded hockey for filmmaking and art, and I think I made a great decision. I’ve probably watched five hockey games from start to finish since graduation, and that’s most likely an exaggeration. Plus, I’m too fragile these days for hockey (as evidenced by my earlier snowboarding accident and clavicle break), or maybe I should take a hiatus from winter sports altogether.

eWeek baseball cap.

I used to freelance as a cameraman for Ziff Davis/eWeek, probably in the early 2000’s. My friend Chris worked there and brought me on.  The work was easy, the money was great and on occasion the entire crew would go out for a dinner where I’d take advantage of my employer and order way too much scotch and high-priced entrees.  But at that time the tech boom was still happening and money was flowing like water so nobody seemed to mind and we were all enjoying the benefits of zeroes and ones.

After Chris was let go and the gravy train ended I had this hat as a consolation prize. I wore it sometimes as a lark because around this time I had started experimenting with Ecstasy and thought it was cool to wear a hat with the letter E.  There was definitely an eWeek or two back then.  So lame.

I found this in a box at my parent’s house.  In the basement.  I feel lighter already.

Viking potholder.
I don’t have a clue where this came from. It kind of looks like a South Park character, but I know it can’t possibly be because I found this buried in a box of high school keepsakes. I like that he’s smiling.

This is one of those things that is cute enough to almost keep, but I’m not going to. There has to be a casserole or cake in need of rescue somewhere, and this Nordic warrior is the perfect man for the job.

Stainless steel scissors.

I have had these since high school. I’m pretty sure they were my mother’s.

A couple of summers ago a close family friend broke her knee after she fell down the staircase in our hallway. This happened about an hour before Anabelle’s first ballet recital. We offered to take her to the hospital, but she refused, not wanting to disappoint Anabelle or cause any of us to miss the show. Instead, she masked her pain and sat through the entire performance.
Later, in the emergency room I watched her almost pass out when they tried moving her from the wheelchair to a hospital bed, the pain was that intense. But it wasn’t until right now- three months after breaking my clavicle- that I can actually imagine how intolerable it must have been sitting through the two plus hours of ballet. I understand how much this woman loves our family and how much she endured in order to not rock the boat on Anabelle’s day. That’s devotion and true love.

Shortly after this accident I bought a roll of the sandpaper-like tape to put on the stairs. The roll was twice the width I needed it to be, so I used these scissors to cut it to size, destroying the scissors in the process. For some reason I threw them back in the drawer. These are things I need to learn to let go of immediately.

Texas Instruments TI-35 Plus Scientific Calculator guidebook.

I’m at my parents house today, the house we’ve been in since I was a teenager.  My folks threw a small gathering to introduce and celebrate Lucinda, who many of their friends have not met.  We also rolled in a celebration of Mother’s Day and my birthday, seeing that we aren’t getting together again next weekend.  The way scheduling goes for us these days it’s easier to consolidate events.
I’m so removed from those teenage years that seeing people I grew up around always bugs me out.  I have a hard time remembering things from those times and I haven’t seen many of my childhood friends in about a decade.  Everyone always seems to have memories that I can’t recall because I’ve moved on without holding on.
I thought about this in relation to my 365Things project and it made sense- I’m trying to move on without holding on.  But when I went into the basement to look for things to purge, I found myself confronted with artifacts from my teen years, and I felt a struggle about what to keep and what not to keep (more on this soon).

I chose this calculator guidebook, printed in 1986 and almost 30 years old.  I don’t have the calculator anymore, and even if I did I wouldn’t need this book.  I’ve moved past the time of scientific calculations, at least for now…isn’t that why the computer was invented?