ow, my back

yesterday's frisbeeing left me a tad sore, from a particular lunge at a low throw. compound that with working from 9-5 today on not much sleep, and you get... um, discomfort.

today was a good day, though. it rained! it was so pleasant and cool. this evening, i was reminded of a certain drawing created by the guy that sat next to my best friend in one of her classes in like freshman or sophomore year of high school. my friend and i had classes in the same room, but at different times, and since we didn't see each other that often, we would leave notes in the room, and read them during class in order to pass the time. anyway, one day she left a little drawing glued to a piece of card stock so that it stood up like a paper doll. an odd little drawing that cody had made and given to her. she gave it to me, and i kept it. at the end of the school year, i took it home and put it in the little box of stuff that i wanted to keep always and forever. the box was full of items chosen not for their amazing worth, but for a record of my life. some have deep sentimental value, some have gained it by being in the box for long enough, and some are just little things i don't really want to throw out. here are the contents:
1 baby t-shirt from my first family reunion
2 girl scout thingies (brownie vest w/ patches, junior across-the-chest-over-the-shoulder thing w/ patches)
1 shirt that a family friend made (he worked at a silk-screening company) that i wore as a child
1 length of rope that i twisted at girls' camp
1 blankie. nuff said
picture i already talked about, plus one more that has the same story, but isn't as fun as the primary one
1 tiara. crappy plastic thing worth maybe 30 cents. during my freshman year of hs, our orchestra gave out titles and awards for each section, the king and queen of each section. there were 3 girls and one boy in my section, so when it came time to hand out the awards, it seemed obvious. however, about a week before, the guy was expelled. he was a senior, too. couldn't walk at graduation or anything. anyway. so we were sitting there during the awards ceremony, and our section leader (whom i looked up to very much, and whom was a very cool person) named me the Viola King. i was so honored. i kept the crown that said Viola King as well, but that isn't in the box. the tiara is.
1 set of mint condition coins from the year i was baptized
1 medal for being the Most Improved Player in the orchestra, 2001
1 pink eraser (normal, "back to school" type) that i secretly drew a picture of the guy i had a crush on during chemistry :P
1 tiny purple mitten. i think i wore it as a baby
my first swiss army knife
1 white poker chip. the marching band used them as markers to show how they did their routines, i think. i found one on the floor and stole it. my secret ambition was one day to join the band
various notes passed in classes
various movie ticket stubs
hotel key cards (they have to change them all the time anyway. why not steal them?)
tickets to museums and the like
4 pokemon cards (i have no idea why)
1 dollar bill that has a speech bubble coming from George that says "I grew HEMP"
a wizened balloon that we stole from a Wendy's on an orchestra trip (it wasn't wizened when we stole it)
yellow floppy disk that i put my math projects on sophomore year of hs
ID card from junior year of hs
rattlesnake rattle. i found a dead snake during a clean-up for a widow in the area, and hacked off its rattle with my spade.
paper bugs i made with my best friend. one year, we couldn't have girls' camp on the mountain like usual, because of wildfires, so we had to "camp out" in the church building. in order to make it seem more like camp, we two made a bunch of paper bugs and taped them up all over the bathrooms. it was great.
a medal from the 1994 brownielympics. i didn't win anything, but they gave everyone that came a medal so we wouldn't cry and have low self esteem. because low self esteem is a disease. why let your little twerpy kid get this disease when it could be avoided by giving them a medal they didn't earn?
my ID card from 7th grade. MAN i was ugly
ok so pretty much all of my ID cards ever
1 tiny little rubber sword i found in the hs library. like an inch long
1 horse carved out of some kind of stone. white. smaller than the sword
2 tiny clothes pin dolls i bought at colonial williamsburg many years ago (George and Martha Washington)
the clippies my viola mentor took out of HER OWN HAIR in order to make my halo stay up. oh yeah... that's the origin of my handle. we each picked a title: she was the Viola Goddess, the other girl was the Duchess of Violi, and i was the Patron Saint of all that is Viola. Violasaint. and she made me a halo for the last day of class. we had viola spirit day, as well. in october, she bought mini pumpkins and decorated them with our name and title, and Viola Star Power. we were so cool.
1 note i wrote to myself: "Open only after graduation!" v. odd. written in early 1999, when i was still dorky. wait, i'm still dorky now... ok. when i was dorky in a way that i took seriously, and didn't realize i was dorky.
another note, "to be opened on my 18th birthday." whoops. why didn't i immediately think of these notes when the specified events happened?
1 glow in the dark sheep (you know, like the stars you stick to your ceiling, only it's a sheep)
1 giant sewing needle

so that's pretty much it for the box. those are my personal treasures. obviously some are more important and worthy of the box than others. but my general rule is that i don't take things out, only put them in. because at some point in my life, each of those things seemed like something i wanted to keep forever, even if i don't remember why now.