Friday 5 - MOMENTOS

One of my favorite topics. I used to be a keeper of many mementos. Less so now, in my old age and after about 20 moves in 10 years. One of my craziest memories about mementos is that I had a basket with a top of all the things that meant something to me in high school under my desk. It had everything from notes from boys to cards from people to rocks from the beach to dried rose petals. To a 17-year-old girl, it was the basket of dreams, hope, belonging, love and future. One morning, in a huff because he was pissed he had to do the chore, my brother, eleven at the time, emptied the entire thing into the garbage and threw it all out, mistaking it, in his rage, as my trash basket. Admittedly, my trash basket was also a basket, but obviously had no cover and was bigger. I didn't find out until after school, and it being trash pickup day, we were unable to recover any of it. I was a raving maniac for a while. And then I got over it.

Okay, today's Friday 5: MEMENTOS

Do you still have your senior yearbook? Where is it?

Yup. On my bookshelf. It was missing for a number of years and then magically reappeared, I have no clue how. I've actually pulled it out recently in this age of Facebook when people friend me and their profile photo is of their kids and I can't even remember what they look like or who they even are. (Why, by the way, are those people friending me?) I was the Business Editor of my book (why? no clue. why?) and it is GORGEOUS. Granted, it's 1991 gorgeous, but still. It's got a suedey/velvety cover and gold embossing and a cut out on the endpaper and the theme is Greek-God-inspired. It's pretty awesome. And so, yes, I keep it.

What souvenir did you bring back from your last trip?

I travel a lot. And I have rituals now of what I get as mementos. 1. Always a flag of that country. In little fabric version, if possible. Like the kind you get a the 4th of July parade. If I can't get fabric, I get a patch or sticker as a last resort. 2. A keychain that is relevant to that country and it goes on my great travel carabiner of keychains. 3. A piece of locally made or locally inspired (or better, both) jewelry. I have some amazing pieces I've collected over the years made by people in cities, villages, art communities, and more. To truly answer this question my last trip was to Peru. I got a little fabric flag (which took FOREVER to find) of both Peru and of Cusco (which is a rainbow like the pride flag although they are not fond of this likening)), a little porter shoe keychain, and a very cool coca leaf set in silver pendant and as a bonus, some earrings in Lima made from dyed seeds for the equivalent of about a dollar.

What visible signs are there of your most recent injury?

I am always covered in bruises. At any given moment I have anywhere from 1 to 10 of them. Mostly on my shins. I bruise very easily and always have. Now that I ride my bike a lot, I get them on my shins all the time just from a tap of the pedal.

What’s the neatest wedding favor you’ve ever seen?

Huh. I have to think on this. Mostly they are lame, right? I guess something interactive is best. Like the one wedding that had a photo booth and you got a strip of four little photos and a little stand up frame. That was good (thanks Matt & Danielle). My friends Sara and Chris actually made, themselves, strawberry rhubarb jam and jarred it up for everyone. They ruined the first batch and had to completely start over. That was pretty cool. My sister and her husband made CDs for everyone of music they care about with little recorded intros. However, burning 400 of those puppies sucked. And they were still doing it, on three computers, the night before the wedding. Insanity.

What do you do with playbills and movie-ticket stubs?

Keep them in a little pile of crap on top of my desk for a while and then I throw them out because why the hell am I keeping them? I do, however, keep all the tickets to museums from trips, bus tickets, maps of cities, subway tokens and tickets, little stirrers from coffeeshops, and the like in this cool journal book made entirely of envelopes that my friend Kathleen gave me. There's an envelope for each trip and I stuff all the stuff in there and I have no idea why I keep any of it either. Maybe if someone visits Cusco soon, I can give them al my tips and hints by going through that envelope.

HAPPY LONG WEEKEND!