Shiny Things Distract Me: Escrow: Reflections

I was watching "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" the other night and it got to the part where Brad Pitt tells Angelina Jolie "I guess at the end, you start thinking about the beginning." Well, the tears started flowing at that moment: this is an end for me and it hit me like 2 tons of bricks covered in bird poop.

I've lived in the same house for 25 years and 11 months exactly (well at least that's how old I'll be when we close escrow). I started off in the yellow bedroom that was decorated with ducks and had a cute little trundle bed. After a while I realized that my bed was cold so I used to walk next door to my parents room and climb into bed with them. Then I'd turn horizontally and kick one of them. I was a pain in the butt.

Then, when I was about 3 I was at a farm in Chino with my Grampa when I was bitten by a duck. I became afraid of ducks and hated my yellow room with the duck accents. With a little bit of convincing from my mother, my father agreed to buy me my own bed. At age 4 I moved into white bedroom next door to my room and got my very own queen size water bed.

I lived in the white bedroom for the next twenty one years. It's filled with my memories, my life, my belongings, and my trinkets and treasures. Looking at the picture below, you may never know that you're looking at some of my favorite things:

On the left there is a cork board with a birthday card from two of my dearest friends, Cristina and Denise, from a few years back. Also on the board is a purple foam and glitter crown that was given to me for my 21st birthday from the wonderful and amazing, Ms. Bailey. That wig on the top shelf is from the infamous "Pregnant Britney" Halloween costume. In those 2 white boxes are photos and scrapbook pages, but more importantly a precious collage of photos from Rose of my God son, Devin. Back on the left is a bright blue duffel bag that is from my days on the WCHS cheer squad. That yellow/brown candle near the top, right shelf is actually a custom candle that was made back when I was born. It has my first, middle, and last name as well as all of their meanings.

Looking at that picture shows me how many memories I've already packed up (look at all those empty shelves!), but also points out how incredibly far I have to go to bundle, wrap, and pack up all of the memories I have made in this room.

This picture cracks me up, but it is proof that I really have held on to so many incredible moments and fun times in my life. That is my sash from when I made prom court 9 years ago. I know what you're thinking. "Kipp, you're crazy. Throw that stuff away!" Well I haven't. Maybe I couldn't. Maybe I was clinging to what I thought was a good time in my life, but just last week I was packing up my Zeta things and I realized that I replaced good memories in high school with great memories in college.

That was all I needed to know. Every stage of my life has been greater than the last, and I have to look back at things like this in order to realize that Mike and I are about to embark on the greatest journey we'll ever have. Greater than our road trips to Las Vegas or cruises in the Bahamas. We're about to begin our life together. I'm about to move in with my best friend and begin building our little nest-egg together.

Now if that's too sappy for you, take a look at some other things that I found.

See that blue eye in the center of the photo? That's Donald Duck, my least favorite stuffed animal in the world, staring at me. Also sitting there is the horse that Rainbow Brite (my childhood idol) used to ride.

Don't tell Mike, but the bottom two boxes are full of Zeta letters, Zeta gifts, and Zeta awards. I'm not done packing the Zeta stuff yet!

This one might not look too important. It's just a ragged and dirty stuffed animal, right? Wrong. That is Fraggle. Fraggles are the coolest things I've ever seen in my life. No lips. No nostrils. No pants. But they are still the greatest mythical creatures in my eyes. They build total underground cities, they eat sugar posts made by Dozers, and they hide from big fat things that live above them.

Well that was my little trip down memory lane. I hope you enjoyed it. I don't think I'd be half as nostalgic as I am if my parents hadn't started a remodel project and changed the exterior color of our house. To top it off, they got a new front door today and decided that 2 keys for it was enough and that they didn't need to make me one. Now I'm not mad, but it's definitely starting to hit me: it's the end, and I keep looking back at the beginning and all of the memories.