Today is our semi-annual neighborhood cleanup day. I spent time last week finding things to put out and also made another trip to Goodwill. I will probably never finish my decluttering project but it’s definitely a goal!
I know there are boxes of things in the garage that haven’t been opened in years. I look forward to whatever hidden treasures they hold. There are two things in particular that I’ve been hoping to find. The first is a copy of the speech Patdick gave at his grad school commencement. The second is Patrick’s journal from our Engaged Encounter weekend. I have mine and it would be fun to compare notes!
I found a promising box and opened it to find an unexpected treasure, the VIDEO of the graduation!!! This video is on VHS tape, has been in the garage for 13 years and is almost 28 years old. I have no idea what condition it is in. I do have a VCR but it’s not hooked up and honestly I was afraid I might destroy the tape. Camille also suggested we wait until Sierra is home to watch it together. So I dropped it off at Horn Photo and told them it was very precious! We will get the DVD in two weeks and hopefully it will work!
There were other treasures in the box also! There was a large picture of the Phi Delta Theta, California Lambda chapter for 1988-1989. Patrick is at the end of the second row looking very cute with his Superman curl! Several of his fraternity brothers came to town last year for his service and it meant a lot to me. I still have his fraternity pin and I’ve worn it to a few important events so I would have something of his with me. 
The box also contained a Swisher Sweets cigar box filled with useful and meaningful items. Most of them were significant to me. I wish I had the story behind all of them! There was, of course, a cigar. There was a small notepad with mostly blank pages. A Japanese phrase book?? A small compact mirror from Burger King with a picture of a lady on the back. His favorite Disney character, Jiminy Cricket. There were business cards from our wedding photographer, the jewelry store he bought my ring from, the athletic trainer he worked for at UOP and my business card from my short stint selling Rainbow vacuums. The video, his Chapman College student ID and a few other small items. The little purple thing is a picture viewer from Magic Mountain that has a picture of us inside. I have one also but it was still fun to find. I don’t have the exact picture to share but it’s from the same trip the picture below was taken on. 
After I pulled this box out I could see there were other boxes around it. I started to grab another then I decided I would wait for another day. There aren’t many Hidden Treasures left so I’m going to savor them as much as I can. I’ll let you know if we are able to view the video. 😊❤️❤️❤️