summer cleaning

for the life of me, i can't seem to find my things. i KNOW i put them in a "safe" place... but they're not in any of the usual safe places i use. i am beginning to think there are malevolent spirits residing in my closets and drawers. supernatural beings who take my things just to spite me. i am not kidding.

strangely enough, only things from a particular phase of my life are missing. the time after board exam and before employment, to be exact. i KNOW i cleaned up my things after the exam, to rid myself of all the useless acquired junk throughout the review months. and i KNOW i set aside all those important things, like extra copies (ORIGINALS, mind you) of my transcript, birth certificate, and what not. actually, what really got me cleaning was my straight edge. same reason i started cleaning a quarter of a year ago. i have two spare parallel rules, both disassembled and standing in the corner of my room in a bucket. with all my other arki-related stuff, like t-squares, tracing tubes, and old plates. the ONLY things that are not with them are the cords and screws needed to attach said straight rules to a drafting board or table. which, unfortunately, have gone AWOL. i tried to llok for them back in october, when my officemate bought my drafting board and straight edge for the january board exam. the thing lost a nut, (okay, that sounded bad...) and i needed to replace it. i KNOW i had two spare sets of nuts and bolts, for the two other parallel rules i have. i looked for them in the places i THOUGHT i kept them. not there. i looked for them in places i wouldn't have thought i kept them. not there either. in the end, i just gave up and told the guy, "i'm sorry."

this time around, i started cleaning up 'cause i plan to donate my old arki stuff to a church friend. their house burned down last week, and she needs arki stuff for her thesis year. so i was back to rifling thorugh my things, trying to find those darn cords nuts and bolts, which i KNOW i put in a red national bookstore plastic bag, and tucked away in my arki junk drawer. after two hours of searching, and consequently CLEANING my room... no red plastic bag. no cords. no nuts. no screws. no bolts. i DID find, however, the following:

1. old ID cards from grade school. i think grade two all the way until grade five. might even have kindergarten and prep ID's.
2. cardboard cut-outs i used as toys.
3. old jackstones and mi-pao sets. (do you remember those???)
4. christmas greetings in my ugly fourth-grade script.
5. photos and contact prints from college photography class.
6. old, inkless pens!!!
7. childhood arts and crafts projects. a lot of which are plastic straw mice.

needless to say, i got rid of a lot of things today. but, i still haven't found what i'm looking for. (cue U2 music.)

on a side note, if any of you guys have any old arki stuff that you're willing to give away, please let me know!!! no need for straight edges. (though cords and bolts would be greatly appreciated.)