EVERYTHING MUST GO

Did I tell you about all the Hoarders I watched in Vermont? Hotels are great, by the way, and so is A&E. So, I watched maybe 3 hours of Hoarders last Monday night. We took a break in the trip. Vermont closed the mountain that is in the way of New Hampshire, anyway, so it's good we found the Bennington Motor Inn.

Hoarders put the fear in me, but I'll get to that. First let me tell you about my favorite hoarder. I only remember one name out of all the shows, and that is Jo, the 70ish Texan queen of the empty nest. Jo is unique for a few reasons. Out of the 6 people (2 per show), Jo was the least emotional, like she was a total rock. Also very stubborn. The others seemed to be more squishy and all "I have a problem please help me" tears, but Jo stood steadfast, and even when they found both a possum skeleton (like the cow skeletons in the desert, just perfectly laid out there, bones only) and a LIVE possum living in an empty box in her husband's former work room, now secret possum hideout, she is not completely convinced there is a problem. She is also unique because she collects some things of value. Like, clocks, dolls, glassware, stuff like that. Also clothes. Not as much with the garbage or food. Garbage and food are big ones. But still she collects junky clocks too and her husband only has his den that isn't floor to ceiling stuff so he's about to divorce her after 50 years of marriage. And they bring in antique roadshowie types to assess the value of some of her non-junk, and it's like 10-20k!! But she's just standing there stoicly staring at the stuff they're talking about, and you can just tell that she's not gonna sell anything and this marriage is over and what if she ends up like the Collyer brothers? Buried beneath the collections? Or Grey Gardens? First living with and then eaten by possums?



Really, this show is horribly sad. So is Intervention. I watched two hours of that. I feel like I learned that divorce and/or childhood dad-less-ness and/or poor supervision and/or overpermissive/guiltridden parents leads to drunk dudes and junkie girls. One man showed his older brother and younger sister how to do heroin and they both died and he still didn't want to quit. BI guess at that point, I dunno, how sad, is all. Like, it's easy to be judgemental and say, yr an idiot, just go to rehab, well, it's actually pretty easy to stick by the judgements.

Anway. But the nice part is, the people on the show get some kind of help and counseling after the show people leave, so it's like, a helpful freakshow? Is that okay? Social work meet rubbernecking?

I'm kind of moving, maybe, you know, and the new goal is to fit everything in my car. I've got all my clothes fitting in one cute wooden trunk, maybe 3 feet by two feet, and now I have like a mountain of papers (business papers?) and records and art supplies to go through. I'm glad the clothes are done first. I also own 2 down comfortors, two quilts, a cotton blanket and about 5 throws. I'm obsessed with blankets. I found a box of old syntax homework and so far that's been the hardest thing to consider getting rid of. I did so horribly in that class but I loved it and I learned a lot and I think I squeezed a B- in there. But I have to get rid of stuff. Or else the possums will find me, right?