Stuff

After we returned to California from London in Feb. '09 we started putting things into high gear. I was still training at the restaurant and Jemma was still working at the Grove School.
We starting simplifying our life and getting rid of the things we did not need. Craig's List and Ebay became our friends.
I thought that selling and giving away things would be just "getting rid of stuff". It couldn't be further from the truth. We really had to decide what we were going to keep and what would go. For me books were some of the hardest things to let go of. Books that I had for twenty years were going off to charity shops. I loved those books. Would the person who bought them have the same emotions and excitement that I had? Would they appreciate them the same as me?
Then as time grew nearer, it was furniture, pictures, clothes and all the other "stuff" that helps make a house into a home. In one night our dining room set and livingroom set sold and went away. One of the strangest things was haggling over something that we were selling at a yard sale. I just wanted to yell "you dick, my wife gave that jacket". We decided that the really personal stuff that was too big to store or too big for the kids to take would be given to close friends. I think that made it a little better.
I was really sad. My family had a lot of real good times sitting around that table. Our whole family sat on that brown leather couch and laughed, cried, fought and loved. It seemed like we were giving part of us, the McVey's away. I was really sad about that. People say it's just stuff, but that was my stuff, our stuff the stuff that belonged to the McVey's. The eminent split up of us living under one roof was staring me in the face and I felt a deep loss.
Meagan had already moved in with Greg and Ryan was making plans. I felt a weird kind of guilt. I felt like I was orchestrating the premature death of us a nuclear family. It was surreal.
When we started planning this adventure, I always was focused on the outcome. I never really gave more than a passing though to the actual mechanics of dismantling a home. It sucked.
The kids put on brave faces. They told us how much they would miss us, both in their own way. We talked about future trips.
Since I was at home during the day, I was able to spend time with both Meagan and Ryan. Sometimes I forgot that we were going. That is until I noticed a picture missing or a piece of furniture that I cuddled my kids on gone.
After we sold, gave away and threw out most of our possessions, our entire belongings where condensed into 22 boxes and four suitcases. Those 22 boxes hold all the "things" that we could not part with. Pictures, things Meagan and Ryan made us when they were kids, over 250 CD's (I counted and alphabetized those 10 times I think), knick - knacks and keep sakes. Those boxes, our life together before we came here, our "life part 1" are in my brothers garage. I never thought I would miss "stuff".