Let's go with Angela's idea and talk about
What to save if the house is on fire?
Given that all living things - two and four legged - are out safely, what would I pull out of that burning building? Alright, here's my list. I do want to say though, that I would have a really hard time narrowing this down to just three, so here are the ones that pop into my head immediately.
#1. My laptop. Duh.
#2. Three pictures. The only two pictures I have of me with both my mom and dad. One is an 8x10 color studio photograph taken when I was about five(??) and the other is a faded black and white candid polaroid of us all on a couch when I was two and a half. And the third is another black and white polaroid of my maternal grandmother and I fishing when I was about seven. I have lots of other pictures of her, but this one is my very favorite.
My grandma died in 1999 and my dad in 2002 - so I have to hold on to what I've got.
#3. A book. A cookbook to be exact. But not just any cookbook - a very, very personal one. (I don't know why I'm on a theme with my dad, but here I go again). I've briefly touched on this before, but my dad was Iraqi. Both his ethnic background and his religion (Catholicism) were in the definite minority, and a huge percentage of them left the country and came to the US, where they promptly invaded Detroit. (And I do mean invaded. You can't fling a falafel without hitting a slew of them).
I grew up on the food and cannot get enough of it. But it's impossible to get in a restaurant unless you're in Detroit (and it's not all that easy there either, since they're all eating mama's cooking at home). When I was a teenager, one of the women wrote a cookbook that I think had about a hundred copies printed and my step-mother, who was tired of cooking for me, got me one, complete with the author's signature.
It's one of my greatest treasures.
What are some of yours?
Thursday, April 3, 2008
The Thursday Three
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21 comments:
1. The computer tower.
2. All the photo albums, which are in one place for easy retrieval.
Those two were easy - the third is hard because there are so many things I would want to take: my purse, art off the walls, the collection of letters my husband and I wrote the first year we knew each other, quilts...
What we know from experience (aunt and uncle in Northridge, January 1994) is that sometimes you are grateful just to get out alive, even in only your pajamas without shoes on your feet.
please fix dinner -- send an invite (:
When you come to Detroit to promote your first book, I'd like to be your ambassador here. I'll take you to Dearborn, the largest Arabic community outside of the Middle East. You'll swear someone's mama is in the kitchen cooking (mainly because she is). My treat. We eat in Dearborn at least once a week. On the way there, I'll feed you my own fare. You won't be disappointed.
As for your rescue:
If you get your photos saved on a disk, you can upload them into the laptop which leaves room for one more item. Store your hard copy elsewhere.
As for my rescue:
I would take all my yarn. It was too pricey to leave behind and in a pinch, I can sell it to raise the down payment on a new house.
I would take Sheila. My purse. I love that bag. More importantly, it carries my money, ID, credit cards, cell phone and camera. I'll start storing my laptop there too so it's ready for rescue and doesn't count as extra.
I'd take my Arabic cookbook too. It can't be replaced as it was inscribed by my Lebanese dad who passed a few years ago. I've written about this book in a post that will be released on his birthday this week. It is a tangible thing, this book. I couldn't bear to be without this.
1. Laptop, of course.
2. Wedding Album
3. ???
Three is a tough one. I don't really know that I have anything else that is so irreplaceable. Maybe the tin dollhouse that was my mother and her sisters'. Maybe the boxes full of my grandmother's papers. There's always Peter's storage disks, but sure, he has his own three things to save. He can save them. :)
Well, after the family ...... photos, laptop. There probably wouldn't be time to get these let a lone anything else. If push came to shove, we'd probably be glad to just get out!
1. Laptop with all family photos scanned on it including photos of my great grandparents.
2. Storage box with all important papers like insurance in it if I haven't already scanned those papers to my laptop.
3. Last but not least, my purse.
Besides my kids, I would have to say my camera, computer (if possible) and a vase my dad made in 1973. It's the only thing I have that belong to him.
Mmmm..thi is a toughie. Why on earth did I suggest it!?
OK, two photographs. One of my grandfather in his army uniform when he was in his 20s. Another of my mother adaunt when they were children.
Laptop - oh yeah!
My external hard-drive...it has all my old photographs on it and they are irreplaceable.
Hmm after the hubby, the kids and the gerbil, then it would be my pc, my kids baby photos, and Miss E's Teddybear Frieda, as she cannot sleep without her.
1.The PC
2.The homecoming ball picture of my daughter and son
3.My son's ashes
If push came to shove, I would only save my son's ashes, because it would bother me the most if I lost those, the rest can be replaced somehow.
It's really too horrible to think off even!
I would grab whichever handbag I'm using at the time cos it's got my credit card and everything I could possibly need in it. The only other item I would grab is a photomontage hanging on the wall of my lounge which is made up of photos of everyone in my family. All the other photographs are too numerous to carry so that would have to do.
photo albums
purse/id
family cookbook
i had a dream there was a fire and i got my photo albums out because there were all in a basket by the door. odd. especially since it didnt appear to be any house i've ever lived in.
well, the computer and photos, obviously, but i'm not going to say that because everyone else is.
so i pick:
artwork. the big black and white print i bought in russia; the irish painting some friends gave us to announce that they were going with us to ireland; "double-espresso man," the painting i bought at an artfair in columbus because it shows a guy reading the paper and drinking coffee.
ok, that's one thing.
jewelry. now you have to understand, i'm not a jewelry girl. but doug has given me a couple of very nice pieces that i would hate to lose, and kristin left her jewelry to me when she died. so i need to save that.
so that's two things.
(clearly, this is a very slow-moving fire.)
books. can i save all my books? i have about ten thousands of them.
The household insurance policy document.
Kidding.
A little silver snuff box left to us by my mother-in-law and all the photos I could carry.
And my makeup, of course.
Good one. Speaking as someone who lives on shakey ground, no pun intended, I have thought many times of this one.
After my children, of course...and perhaps the spouse....
1. The box that contains my papers. My birth certificate, baptismal records, marriage license, copies of SS cards and all of the kids stuff too (see above, minus the marriage license and add immunization records) I knew I kept them in a box for a reason.
2. My cell phone and charger!
3. The crucifix that hung in my grandmother's home. I am not as regligious as I possibly should be, but it is very sentimental to me. Although I am not sure she believed I was a good person...I feel that by honoring her by having it hanging in my home, I can get there...someday!
Love To You, Sister...my Sister!
1. Credit cards
2. Meds
3. Pets
I keep saying to myself "we should put all our photos in the basement, as we'd be really sad if they got lost in a tornado". So photos (but everyone else has said that), and then I'm not sure what. A bit of baby memorabilia perhaps? Oh, I know! Teabags! (because, let's face it, what you really really need in an emergency is a good cup of tea, and over this side of the Atlantic, that means making it yourself!)
By the way, I have carefully re-educated myself to say 'pictures' instead of 'photos', and now here is everyone saying 'photos'. Can you enlighten me?
Well, I'll tell you what I would leave behind. The spiders I've just noticed all over this room. Yeuch!
But I would take
1. The computer hard drive (unoriginal, I know)
2. The two boxes of keepsakes we have - one for each boy - so I can spend the time waiting for the insurance company to pay up for repairs profitably and finally make up their scrapbooks
3. Our camera. Because whilst most of the photos are backed up, not all of them are...
Too hard. I'll go away and have a think.
1. external hard drive backup
2. milk crate of photo albums, family wirtings (my great grandmother's memoirs, both of my grandfathers' memoirs and treasures from my grandkids)this is already organized
3. purse with meds and glasses.
photos. totally photos.
the laptop for sure ... and the external hard drive from our main family computer.
which is where all the digital photos live.
see? photos.
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