playing tennis while vacuuming pistachios

Do you ever wonder what material possesion means most to you in life...?

I used to think that if I had to choose between all the possesions I owned, whatever it would be, it would certainly relate to music.... weather it be a CD (or now I could say my new ipod --oh yeah! I finally got one!), the guitar, piano, drum, etc... But, I learned that my instinct had somthing else in store for me.

You see, a few years ago, I lived in a studio apt. in this 15 story building... My parents were visiting me at the time. We were sitting in the living room when all of a sudden we heard the fire alarm go off... Outside the window we saw several fire engines had surrounded the building... I started to smell some fumes and realized this was REALLY happening... My apt. was going to burn down in flames!!!

We all jumped to our feet and each grabbed something to take with us as we hurried outside. My father grabbed his tennis racquet (that's no suprise), my mother went for the pistachios (strange choice, I know... It's hilarious... apparently, they had been brought from Iran for her, so she felt she should keep them), and I - for some reason- went for the vacuum cleaner...

The VACUUM CLEANER???????????????

To this day, I have no understanding why it was so important for me to grab an item that I try to avoid like the plague. Don't get me wrong, I love cleanliness, I just live in denial of my responsibility to use the vacuum to get there. The amount of energy I use in anxiety over lack of vacuuming is painfully ridiculous. More energy is spent agonizing over the duty than the actual act of vacuuming. Oh, the irony..... I just drive myself crazy over that machine... That's why it's so hard for me to believe that I chose to save it in the fire....