It's snowing, I'm organising, and losing my mind!

I keep insisting this house eats things. I am very organised (Martha Stewart would be proud of me). I have to put everything in an exact place. I don't have a habit of tossing an item just anywhere in hopes of filing it away when it is convenient. Example: In our current house of limited space, the hallway press (closet for you American readers!) is divided by three shelves and the top one is for all art supplies, the middle for storage containers of cards/letters from everyone, the third holds a container for bills and doctor/veterinarian records. Just a small example of how I do things around my house. So you see, I AM an organised individual.

SO WHY AM I LOSING EVERYTHING?

It has begun since we moved into this very house. I keep saying a poltergeist is playing jokes on me. My husband does not believe in any spirits of the other world, poltergeists, and the like. (Yet oddly, he gets incredibly freaked out if I even mention the word ghost) Anyhow, as time has gone by here the last year, things were being moved, things were not in their correct spot, a $20 bill went missing, and most curiously, Clare's christening certificate from 1997 completely vanished. I keep all records of that type in a big filing box. Somehow her christening certificate was at my mother's, she found it, and gave it to me during our visit to Virginia last summer. That's all well and good, but I placed it (along with a few other items I got there) in my nightstand. After unpacking and doing the laundry accumulated by the trip, I thought, "hmmm, I'd better get those papers filed!" Christening paper: gone. Lovely. That was in July. Here is it mid-February and it has yet to be found. The $20 bill disappeared in September. Again, had been put in the nightstand as it was in my pocket and I placed it in there so I would not wash the money in my jeans. Turned to put it in my wallet later....nowhere to be found. After tearing apart the nightstand, I came to the conclusion either a poltergeist really was tricking me or more likely, Aoife ate it. Being the younger dog, she seems especially fascinated by any paper product. But that's another story. (By the way, this paragraph does not do justice for ALL the things that have been misplaced, moved or completely vanished.)

Tonight at precisely 7pm I sat down to organise all those pictures I told you about in the last entry. It took until 10pm. Got all the index cards for each section filled in, negatives labelled and placed in a special box, and then thought to myself, "now where are those last four envelopes of photos I recently got developed??" Thinking back in time, I had them on Friday evening, at which I had removed a few photos to post to my aunt and cousin. I distinctly told myself at that point, "now anneliese, put these with the huge container of photos since you know next week they have to all be organised into the smaller photo storage boxes." Last I saw of them. I complained to Greg, who reminded me on Friday evening I threw out some old magazines, catalogues and a few bathroom items under the sink as we won't be needing things like that when we move soon. I said "there is no way I threw out those photos by accident!!" He decided he was going out, in the pouring snow, and foraging through the huge communal dumpster out in the median. I told him not to bother, but he did anyhow. Found the bag all right, but no photos. Maybe they fell out? While he was in the shower scrubbing off the neighbourhood germs of the communal dumpster after that wonderful escapade, I opened the now neatly arranged-and in chronological order I must add-photos. And there, already filed away, were the contents of the four packets of pictures I had just spent an hour searching through the house for. I realised those must have been the first batch of photos I put away tonight at 7pm. I just had to go tell Greg. Upon hearing the information, he simply stated, "you have definitely lost it." Yep, I think I truly have.

And just so you know, those little hand held photo storage containers REALLY do hold a lot of photos. I now believe the outer tag which said "holds 1100 photographs."