Tudoring My Own Horn (Not)

What:  DVDs, Seasons 1-3 of the Tudors
Origin:   A friend really wanted me to watch them.
How long kept:   Maybe 4 months?
Usage:  Not at all.
Why kept:  Should Have Said "No"
Destination:  Return to Lender.

Confession:   My East Coast family, the family of my college roommate, has been so great to me.   Many (or all?) of the sisters love this series.   I returned it when I went over for Thanksgiving dinner.

Last year, we were hanging out and watched the episode where Henry VIII's second wife is executed.   As a dweeby teenager, I fantasized that I was the reincarnation of Anne Boleyn.   I have no idea where that thought came from, but I loved that tragic story.   I found watching this episode very disturbing!   And didn't want to watch the rest.   I know how it all ends.

(Maybe it was bad enough the first time around!)

Confession, part deux:   I've been trying to post at night, instead of the mornings, just to work better with my work routine.   But aargh, this is the 3rd time I've forgotten to do it.   I've got to figure this out.

This One's Booking

This One's Booking
Originally uploaded by 365 Things

What: Worthy Book.
Origin: A friend wanted me to read it.
How long kept: About 4 years. See confession.
Why kept: See Confession.
Destination: Return to Lender.

Confession: Should Have Said No. I'm sure it's a great book, but not on topic for my business reading.

Confession, cont: In my defense, my friend and her husband moved to the UK for work about 3 years ago. Any attempt for me to repatriate this one, so to speak, would have been both difficult and inconvenient for her. She didn't need to carry it back there, nor did she need to store a book she had already read.

She and her husband moved back last month, and are settled. It's on its way out, as I'm seeing them today!

I'm sure it's a great book and worth reading. On the day I decide to do this, I'll get it out of the library.

Return to lender

Return to lender
Originally uploaded by DeClutter

What: a borrowed kids book about having a baby
How long kept: yikers, over a year
Last used: last year just before the baby was born.
Why: it was lost :( I felt horrible since it was borrowed. Then I forgot about it. Then moving some furniture around it was found!! Yay. Returned to "Q"!

Thanks "Q". We loved this book

Son Of Fleece

What:  Another fleece.
Origin:  My dad lent this to me, probably for a trip back from Chicagoland.  (It can be flippin' cold on the plane!)  
How long kept:  5-6 years?
Why kept/Usage:  I wore it from time to time.   It Might Be Useful.   It reminded me of my dad.  Nostalgia, the good kind.
Destination:  Return to Lender.   It's en route back to Chicagoland and Dad's stash of outerwear.

Confession:   This is huge on me!   I used to have the habit of wearing gigantic things...it started in the Flashdance era.   But some time in the 90s I realized that clothes that actually fit me are far more flattering.

Confession, part deux:   My dad did tell me that I could keep it.   But I don't need it, I have two other fleeces, and many other things to remind me of Dad.

NB:  This is not going to Mom, and thus does not violate either the letter or spirit of the Rules.

Plastic Fantastic

What:  Reusable/Disposable plastic container.
Origin:  Friends sent me home from a lovely lunch with enough amazing leftovers to feed me for two days.
Usage:   Not at all.   Unless storing other plastic containers counts as usage.
How long kept:  About 6 weeks.
Why kept:   It Might Be Useful.
Destination:  It Was Useful!   I made a major batch of hummus, more than enough to share with my friends.   (So, it's kind of a Return To Lender situation, inadvertent since they never intended to see it again.)

Bonus:   Still plenty of hummus left over for me!

Texting

Texting
Originally uploaded by 365 Things

What: Several Indian philosophy texts
Origin: Desire for an erudite enlightenment.
How long kept: Not too long, maybe a month or so?
Last used: This past weekend.
Why kept: Might Need Them...this is all germane to the aforementioned certification exam, which I turned in this morning. So, They Might Be Useful.
Destination: Return To Lender, back to my colleagues who suggested
that I might need them.

Thanks!

Almost return to lender

Almost return to lender
Originally uploaded by DeClutter

What: baby clothes borrowed from a friend when The Kid was outgrowing clothes so fast we put out a call for fleece sleepers. A friend came through in spades
how long kept: about a month past their "expiration date"
Destination: our friends requested them back originally, but changed their mind when confronted with the question, "Can we drop them off today?" They said to pass them on. Luckily, today we saw my sister-in-law and she happily took them :)

Booking!

What:  Borrowed Books.
Origin:  Travel reading.
How long kept/Usage:   Longest?  Fellowship of the Rings, since probably 1999.   Others date to early this year.  For usage, see confession.
Why kept:  Inertia.   And like other books I've surrounded myself with, they kind of became invisible, so Out Of Sight, Out of Mind. 
Destination:  Return to Lender, via USPS.

Confession:  I kept Fellowship of the Rings because I might read it, and thus It Might Be Useful.   True or false:  Tolkien is mostly for adolescent and post-adolescent boys?   I finally choked down The Hobbit in the late 90s, but never managed any of the others.   (And I haven't seen Lord of the Rings movies based on a personal rule:  I refuse to see films that last more than 120 minutes.)

Confession part deux:   These are going back to Mom.   I feel that since they already belong to her, our ordinary rule excluding items given to Mom does not apply:   I'm not generating new stuff in Mom's life, I'm merely putting something back on the right shelf.

The shelf that is not in my house.

Digression:   My first job after college was working in a residential drug and alcohol treatment center for adolescents.   The kids, who were great and by now hopefully all living good, sober middle-aged* lives, used "to book" as a verb.   It meant, decamping from treatment without authorization or having completed treatment.   I never got that.  From time to time, I hear, "Gotta book," when someone (usually a fictional character) is talking about leaving rapidly.   Hmmm.

*Question:   Is Gen-Y middle aged yet?

Inked, Not

Inked, Not
Originally uploaded by 365 Things

What: Book.
Origin: Pop culture jones.
How long kept: Probably a month?
Why kept: Inertia -- borrowed this one from a book club friend, and
figured I'd see him at book club soon enough. This one doesn't fit
neatly into one of our categories...but the reason for hanging onto it, well It's Perfectly Good.
Destination: It's book club night, so Return To Lender.

Confession: This is yesterday's entry. I tried to mobile-blog it, actually on an Amtrak train, on my way back from a business meeting in Philadelphia (and en route to book club). Mercury retrograde must have created an "issue" with the mobile blogging....it also could have been a "user error".   Sigh.

Confession part deux: The book's owner was not at book club last night! So I'll have to pop this in the mail to him.

Digging Out

Digging Out
Originally uploaded by 365 Things

What: Cute Charlaine Harris book.
Origin: Borrowed for airplane reading.
Why kept: Out of Sight, Out of Mind. I also couldn't remember who it belonged to.
How long kept: Probably a year.
Destination: Return to Lender. (Thanks, "M".)

Confession: Before my bitter break up with Time Warner Cable, I had considered upgrading to HBO so that I could watch True Blood, based on Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels. (This is a different series, witha female protagonist who can find where dead bodies are buried. Hmmm. Not everyone can be Cormac McCarthy.)

There's a vampire joke in here somewhere, having to do with Time Warner Cable, but I think I've got to let go...

Jelly Jars and Computer Games

What: Empty Jelly Jars and Computer Games for kids (Forgot to take a photo)
How long kept/last used: The games over a year, never used. The Jelly jars just about every day until they were empty.
Why kept: The games were out of sight out of mind. The jelly jars were just waiting for their moment.
Destination: Return to Lender.

We have a wonderful friend that makes awesome homemade jelly. She is also generous in sharing her little one's out grown items. We return the jelly jars so that she can make more. It's truly delicious jelly!

Good Bye, Pain (Free)!

What:  Borrowed Books
Origin:  A student wanted me to look at them.   I tried to say no...I failed.
Usage:   I scanned them when I brought them home, and really looked at them yesterday.
Why kept:   Aaaargh.   Mostly out of sight, out of mind.  And I might read them, so They Might Be Useful?
How long kept:  Less than a year.   (Close enough, though.)
Destination:   Return To Lender.

Confession:  I took these because the student looked a little crestfallen when I explained that I had a lot of other reading to do.   (This was the truth.)   He responded that I should keep them as long as I liked.  (Based on that, I should have brought them back the next week.  I have pretty good boundaries, but have a hard time telling my students "no".   That's how I wound up on Facebook, too.   Sigh.)
Bonus:  The information contained in these books looks like biomechanically sound advice that might work for the person in your life who might not ever find himself in a yoga class.

Returned with interest

Returned with interest
Originally uploaded by DeClutter

What: a borrowed childrens book about pregnancy and two Magic Tree House books
Last used: borrowed book, last September. Magic Tree house books, last week
Origin: my friend lent me the book when I became pregnant. The MTH books were from a garage sale this summer
Destination. Returned the book to my friend and I'm sharing the other two with her.
Confession: my son received a box set of the Magic Tree House for Christmas. He loves them.

Return To Lender

What: Mismatched Knitting Needles.
Origin: Mom.
How Long Kept: Possibly since the 80s.
Why Kept: Out of sight out of mind. Aaaaaargh.
Destination: Back to Mom.

Sorry, Mom, if any of your unfinished projects might be finished just for the want of these missing needles.

"M" says... this might be an infraction of the rules!!! It's going back to Mom's. hmmm We will have to have a meeting on this.

"A" points out:   Hmmm.  I think not, in this case.   There's a "founder's intention" argument here:  Mom arguably has two sets of useless knitting needles that can be made whole.   If the point of that rule is that we'll get it all back someday, would you rather get back putatively useful knitting needles?   (Someone Might Need Them, after all.)