Pack Rat

Pack Rat n.
1: wood rat esp. a large bushy-tailed rodent ( neotoma cinerea ) of the Rocky Mountain area that has well developed cheeks (!) pouches and hoards food and misc. objects
2: One who collects or hoards esp. unneeded items.

That's me, number two. That's me. A pack rat. I knew it when I was looking for a piece of fabric today to make some new runners for the dining room table and found a beautiful blue and white print.
This print, as I remember clearly, I bought when I was visiting Japan with First Chamber Dance Co.
It is a length of kimono fabric.( they sell them all rolled up and a certain width, all you have to do is cut and stitch ) And I bough it in 1970. So for 37 years I have been schlepping this and many, many other pieces of fabrics around from Seattle to San Diego to Puerto Vallarta.
If that is not a Pack Rat, nothing is.
The wonderful thing is that I still recognize the different pieces and it gives me no end of pleasure to look at all the fabrics and remember where I got them. Sort of like hunters and fishermen displaying their trophies and remembering the day and the fight. Only the closest I ever got to a fight was when a fellow designer wanted the same bolt of fabric that I had my grubby little hands on, and rather than a " High Noon " , we decided, being decent human beings, to split the bolt. And giggle.
Now, there is a lesson.
If you giggle you are much less likely to shoot, kill or maim some other person.
So there.
Giggle.