Tuesday January 6th

I never really grasped how much a geek I actually am and to be totally honest I think I may also have to accept the mantel of nerdy geek as well.

I am and I have now decided to truly embrace my inner and outer GEEK. Is there a program that I join where I can stand proudly with my fellow geeks and proclaim with pride… “Hello, my name is Anne and I am a GEEK.” Now I do not want to be “cured” I love my geeky nature and I consider it an asset. I need to be clear about that.

I have had conversations with friends about how coot it is that we love the tools of our trade and that we are “tool whores” and we like to talk about tools and resin and the newest hammer from Rio Grande. And I like the fact that I can discuss the nuances of my new rolling mill for a very long time. We take great pride in our tool-geeky ways…

But it has been brought to my attention that my geek-ness goes well beyond those few quirks. In order to truly embrace this life have to admit to the full extent of my GEEK. You are all aware of that quarter collection that I have??? It is still in the same box with the same cardboard protectors that it came in 10 years ago and the box it in excellent condition. My jewelers’ scales (both my travel scale and my bench scale) live in their boxes as well and the plastic sleeves that protect them are in there…too.

But in my defense…I am NO WHERE near the geek that my father was…. I think that he has his own storage space in heaven for all of the boxes that he saved for decades! I can at least say that I do not save packing material to that extent.

As I look around my house the truth becomes clear, my movies are in alphabetical order, if I do not put my keys on the hook by the door I will never find them again, my books are organized by subject and I am always bummed by the fact that they do not look good when THEY are in alphabetical order so they are sorted by size. The cabinets where I store all of the tools that I have for sale are also in the same alphabetical order. I could go on around the rest of my house but I think you get the nature of my GEEK.

Now I know that this sounds really bad…but there is method to my madness. There really is. I can be so cluttered that if I do not take these extreme measures then chaos and confusion would reign. In my strange mind…I like finding a movie quickly so the orderly nature of the shelf lets me get straight to the point of the matter. The key thing is really self-explanatory, the books being sorted by subject just seems very librarian of me and as for the scales still being in their boxes, they were expensive and I can’t afford to replace them. I have over 45 different tools that I keep in stock for sale and I like to be able to inventory them quickly so I do not waste hours of my life searching for them.

There is method in here somewhere, I am just sure of it.

As for the Quarter Collection? I have no excuse…it just made me laugh every 3 months to pull the box down add another quarter to the map…that is just weird I know. But I actually do like that fact that I did not give up on the quest to collect them all and put each in its proper place.

Embrace your inner and outer GEEK. It makes life REALLY interesting, don’t you think?