Forgot to mention…

I received a time capsule today. It was a letter I wrote to Michael on June 25, 2002, a few days before Calvin and I got married. It was my “wish you could be at the wedding, I promise to be a good step-mother” letter, that he evidently never received. He was stationed at Camp Pendleton at the time, but I guess the address I had for him was incorrect. The envelope has stamps all over it as it got redirected and shipped around, trying to find Michael. In the end, they just hit it with a “return to sender” and I got it back today.

This letter has been floating around in the black hole that is the United States Postal Service for almost SEVEN YEARS. Oh, the stories it could tell us.

It also has Michael’s federal tax return check in it from that year, that I’d enclosed along with my letter. It’s for a whopping $53.00. I wonder if he can still cash it?

Workplace Archaeology

I finished up the last of our Emergency Document today, and while it’s missing one or two pieces of trivial information (well, except for Calvin’s life insurance info, that’s not trivial), it’s mostly intact. Intact enough to be of use to Calvin should I happen to Bite The Big One, anyway. The last Really Important Big Thing to get done is our wills. That’s my next goal.

Anyway, in the course of finishing off this document, I thought I’d go through the contents of my desk at work, and see if there were any bits of paper hanging about that I should add to the file. This is something I do once a year or so (except not this time, more on that later). See, I do all of our financial crap and bill paying and other various and sundry administrata from my cubicle. So bills and statements pile up and get tossed in a big ol’ stack in the bottom of one of my desk drawers.

The desk was refusing to close, about sometime last month. I’ve had to force it shut with the sheer power of my will, lately. So, I figured today was as good a day as any. And, while I was at it, I decided to go through some of the hanging files living in a different drawer of my desk, just to see what there was to see.

Things I found while going through my desk:

• A house appraisal from 2001.
• Credit card and utility bills dating back to 2005.
• Loan documents for vehicles we no longer own (the Avalanche and my motorcycle).
• Loan documents for mortgages that have been paid off for years (lots of refi’s and changing loan companies).
• Pictures from when Calvin and I first got together, that somehow got stashed in my desk. I used to be SO FLIPPIN’ SKINNY. Come to think of it, so did Calvin. I’ll scan ’em later, just for fun.
• All of the receipts from our wedding, and all of the receipts from our honeymoon.
• My original hand written (on green ledger paper, no less) budget and household accounting, circa 1999. Back when my mortgage used to be $680.00/month, OMG.
• Tax statements for the years 2000-2004.
• Eighteen million receipts – all kinds of stuff from Circuit City (fat lot of good that does me now, huh?), the dishwasher, the washer and dryer, the refrigerator, the pub table, the pool table, some artwork, and a craptastic amount of grocery receipts. I mean, whyinhell did I save those??

Clearly, I need to clean out my desk more often. What I chose to save amounted to a wee little 1/2 inch stack that fit nicely into a hanging file. I have a whole empty desk drawer that I can do anything I want with, now.

Next I have to tackle the file cabinet at home. It’s in the same condition as my desk drawer, except times four. Yeeeeeaaaahhhh.. maybe next year.