What We Keep

We all have this stuff that seems to travel with us as we move through life. Contemplating my future has also made me contemplate the things I'll take with me. As I'm downsizing, (the goal is to have everything I own except furniture fit in my car) I find myself asking "why do I have this?" an awful lot. I've decided that if I can't come up with a good answer quickly, I probably don't need to hang on to it. I am kind of a sentimentalist, though, so some things that aren't useful as anything other than good juju do make the cut:

(click to enlarge)

1. Drumhead signed by the mighty Robo (Memory / piece of music history)
   
2. Cthulhu (Memory: bought with Scott at the creepy Hampton comic shop at 2 in the morning)
   
3. Dummy Winslow Leach (I made it. Could foresee giving to one of a few people)
   
4. A beanie baby (Memory / sentimental value: my cousin Millie left on the dashboard of my first car)
5. Chibi-Cthulhu (Gift: sculpted just for me as a Christmas gift from Mary)
   
6. A unicorn (Gift / memory: from Sam, once sat on my desk at work as an inside joke)
7. The most recent handful (out of a gazillion) Red Rose Tea animals my grandmother keeps giving me (Gift, yes, but good grief, I have to figure out what to do with these creatures before they take over)
   
8. The remnants of a vast Marvin the Martian collection I'd amassed in high school (Gifts)
   
9. Half of a wire sculpture Jeanne gave me 15 years ago (Gift / memory)
   
10. Pink, sparkly Emperor Palpatine (Gift)
    
11. Blue Lisa Snellings Poppet (Bought it because I love her work & wanted a piece)
    
12. COBRA action figures (Gift)
    
13. Wooden sculpture I got out of a vending machine with Melissa (Memory)
    
14. Jade carvings my mom brought back from China (Gift / Memory
    
15. The King (Gift, doesn't really apply to this topic since it's not like I'll keep putting up an expired calendar, but it's in the picture.)