Self Portrait in Mirror with Steam +

080524, originally uploaded by Erica the Ninja.

(The plus part being my Great Grandfather's wind chime, which is made out of half of a coconut shell, some sea urchin spines, and some beautiful shells that look like gulls floating over the ocean. I have had this at every place that I have lived since he died, including my dorm room. It will go to Montreal with me (even when my microwave, vaccuum cleaner, shoe cube, printer, and various other things will not). I am a sucker for the sentimental things. I have whittled my possessions down over the years, but just went through a box today containing:

1) An old jewlery box that I have had since I was born
2) A separate jewelery box that my father made for me for christmas
3) My first necklace, a delicate heart with Black Hill's Gold leaves
4) Some crystals that I got when I was a kid
5) An old Native American bead made out of sea gull bone that I found with my dad while arrowhead hunting at Pyramid Lake (I know that this is a bad thing to do, but it is a fond memory that I have and refuse to feel guilty about it).
6) Several pieces of chintzy jewelry that i have never worn (and probably never will), but were gifts and therefore difficult to part with.
8) A flask given to an ex-boyfriend as a gift for being a groomsman (I don't really drink hard alcohol much anymore, but somehow the thought of wandering around Montreal in the middle of the freezing winer with a flask full of whiskey makes me smile). His name is engraved on the side.
9) A small vanity mirror engraved with my initials, given to me as a graduation gift.
10) Lots and lots of similar crap, just as easy (and probably pointless) to hold on to.

Some of this stuff is important, I think (my great-grandfather's windchime, my first necklace) but a lot of it is not (the flask). I have a serious problem making that judgment call sometimes, though. Is it human nature to want to hold on to fragments of our past like this?