Farewell to 42

Tomorrow is my 43rd birthday and it's time to say goodbye to 42. It's been an interesting year with plenty of good stuff, but also a medical problem last summer that really threw me off course. I'm doing better now, but it's an ongoing battle. Medication is preventing the episodes of blindness, but the anxiety remains (though to a lesser degree). I'm still very limited in where and how far I can drive without panicking. It's been pretty awful, actually. I haven't been motivated to do much with my yearlong project to Discover 42. And that's OK.

I had such an amazing time with my 40 Things and Project 41 that it was inevitable that one of my yearly projects wouldn't be quite as awesome. Discover 42 wasn't bad. I did get rid of 42 pounds of stuff and learned a lot of fun facts about the number 42. I watched some cool 42-related movies. Most recently, I've challenged myself to get rid of 42 inches of paperwork and other stuff from the files.

As I mentioned before, we have two filing cabinets that are rapidly filling up because we regularly put stuff in and almost never take stuff out.  I'm slowly going through every file and weeding out everything that can either be scanned and recycled or simply recycled. It is taking a really, really long time. But I am making progress. Visible progress. I decided I would keep going, measuring the discards, until I had discarded a staggering 42 inches.

While donating 42 pounds of unwanted belongings was easy, recycling 42 inches of paperwork is hard and really time-consuming, especially stopping to scan anything sentimental or potentially important and shred anything with private information. For the most part, it has not been fun. But it's been very satisfying to reclaim that wasted space.

Here's what 6 inches of old appliance manuals (that we can now find online) and warranties (long since expired) looks like.

Goodbye, 3" of outdated maps!

Farewell, 1.5 inches of paint chips! 

So long, last 1" of store-bought greeting cards that have been languishing ignored in my craft room for the past decade when I started making my own cards!

I've also said good riddance to really old phone lists, service records for a car I no longer own, recipes featuring ingredients Steve can't eat, and a bunch of other stuff that has no place crowding up our lives. I passed 42" and I'm still going. I'm not even close to done. Ugh. The good news though? Along the way, I found my missing ballroom dance portraits! Hurray!

So long, 42! I'm looking forward to 43. Tomorrow I'll tell you all about my plans.

Checking Out "42" From the Library

One of the first things I did when I decided to Discover 42 was to do a search at the library to find materials with the number 42 in the title.  I checked out three.

42nd Street

I'd seen this on stage decades ago (or so I thought), but I'd never seen the movie version.  Steve hadn't seen it on stage or screen.  When we watched it, it was so unfamiliar to me that I'm not sure I saw it on stage after all.  I hadn't realized how old this was (1933), nor that it been nominated for Best Picture.  It features Busby Berkeley's choreography, which is always a treat.  I suspect that most 80+ year old movies wouldn't hold up as well today as this one does.  I loved Ginger Rogers' performance and am eager to see more of Ruby Keeler, who was unfamiliar to me. Overall, it's a fun movie and I'm glad I saw it.

.....

Kenny Rogers: 42 Ultimate Hits

I like Kenny Rogers well enough and even have his Greatest Hits CD (bought around 1991 specifically for 'The Gambler,' the ultimate road trip song for my college friends and me).  But I wouldn't necessarily say I'm a Kenny Rogers fan, so many of the songs were unfamiliar to me.  In fact, out of the 42 songs, there were 17 that I don't think I've ever heard before.  Overall, it was enjoyable background music while I cleaned and puttered around the house.  I didn't discover any new favorite songs or anything, but it certainly wasn't unpleasant.  (Well, a few songs were.  I think this album might have been better with about 37 Ultimate Hits.)

.....

42

I've saved the best for last.  We missed '42' in the theaters last year and heard that it was amazing, so I was really glad to finally see it.  I actually started by checking out a Jackie Robinson biography (that didn't have 42 in the title) and reading that so that I'd be better able to identify any parts of the movie that were more Hollywood than historical truth.  I loved the movie.  If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. 

Discover 42

Twelve days ago, I turned 42 and announced this year's project, called Discover 42.  In that short time, I've already learned a lot about this very interesting number.  For example:

• Wolves and dogs have 42 teeth.
• A pair of dice has a total of 42 dots.
• There are 42 gallons in a barrel of oil.
• Elvis died at age 42.  (His father died at 42 also.)
• There are 42 visible eyes on a deck of 52 cards.

My friend Adam shared two 42-related Judaism facts with me.  There are 42 lines of text in each column in a Torah scroll (read about that here).  One of the mystical names of God has 42 letters (read about that here).  Fascinating!

I've learned a lot more about the number 42 that I'll share in future posts.  Today I want to talk about my first 42-related project.  That project?  Ridding myself of 42 pounds.  

I don't mean losing 42 pounds off my body.  While I'd be happy to lose about 10 pounds, losing 42 pounds would land me in the hospital.  Heck, no matter how much a person weighs, losing 42 pounds in 12 days is probably going to land them in the hospital.  No, my goal was to rid myself of 42 pounds of unnecessary stuff sitting around the house.

I'm pretty good about regularly going through things and donating what we don't need, but I could be better.  Much better.  I'm bad about holding onto things I might need in the future.  I decided to challenge myself to clean out several closets and find 42 pounds of stuff to give away. 42 pounds and then I'd stop.  I started in my closet, pulling out purses I don't use and clothes I don't wear.  Then I headed to my shelves and cabinets.  Every once in a while, I'd put a stack on the scale and write down the amount.  I had no idea whether it would be difficult to reach 42 pounds or not.  As it turns out, it was not difficult at all.  This is what 42 pounds of stuff looks like:

It feels really good to have it all gone.  I don't think I'll miss any of those items.  I'm certainly enjoying cleaner, more roomy closets and cupboards.  

I've never cleaned with a goal of getting rid of a specific amount of stuff.  It was surprisingly motivating!  I'm definitely going to use the same strategy again.  Goodbye to the unnecessary 42 pounds!

Today I am 42!

Today I am 42!  I'm excited.  Birthdays are fun, particularly since I realized two years ago that (with a little bit of effort) one can make a birthday celebration last the entire year.  The past two years have been wonderful, due largely to my 40 Things and Project 41 adventures.  I have high hopes that 42 will be just as great.

I've been thinking about how to celebrate 42 for quite some time.  I was a teenager when I read Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and learned that 42 is the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.  I knew I wanted to tie into that somehow.

After a lot of thought, I've decided that I'm going to discover everything I can about 42.  If 42 is the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, then it could be really fun to learn more about this (seemingly) ordinary number.  I've done some preliminary research and found all sorts of fun facts and lists about the number 42, as well as books, music and movies with 42 in the title.  I'll learn about the 42nd president and the 42nd state.  I'll try "42 foods that..." and I'll try to learn the domino game called "Texas 42."  I'm going to immerse myself in discovery and see where it takes me. 

I can't wait!