Spring is in the Air

Spring flowers. Spring babies. Spring rain showers. Spring cleaning. Colorado Springs loves to show off it's seasons and I have to admit, Spring is my favorite!
First of all, every single tree at the OTC is covered in beautiful flowers that smell spring-y. What a difference the view is outside my window from my last visit here: Sometimes you forget that nature goes through some amazing changes...it's pretty subtle in Florida...but out here, especially when you leave and come back, the changes are breath-taking.
I was out for a run in the middle of the day, jogging along and chatting with a good friend, when I noticed some little fuzzy green things floating on the pond next to us. Sure enough, I took a better look and it was 13 geese babies following their mothers around and 8 duck babies following their mothers around. It was one of those times you just HAVE to stop, point, enjoy the moment, take a good mental photo, and then continue on the path.
That mid-day run was perfectly timed between morning and afternoon rain showers that blew in off the mountains. I wanted to make sure that I didn't get caught in the rain 30 minutes away from the OTC because the rain was COLD and I am very acclimated to warm weather. Fortunately, the clouds opened up at noon and let in some warm sunshine...and then closed back up in the afternoon and rained again (but I was inside and dry at that point)!
As I mentioned before, I'm moving out of the OTC...and I have got a LOT of STUFF in my room. Three and a half years is a lot of time for collecting things and I seem to be really bad and getting rid of those things. So it is very fitting that it's Spring and I'm doing a massive Cleaning. So far, I have managed to sell one thing, a filing cabinet, and give away a TON of things! (Strange, giving is easier than selling...who would have thought:)
For three years, my bathroom has been kept clean and my trash cans have been emptied by a hard working group of ladies hired by the OTC. I happened to see them digging through my overly full garbage cans today because I had put stuff in them that I didn't think was worthy of the Goodwill pile. As soon as I saw what they were doing, I realized that I could skip my trip to the local Goodwill location and just give my three industrial-size garbage bags full of STUFF to these hard working women! They were ecstatic...I had tossed all sorts of clothes, bags, games, toys, books, etc. into the bags so it was a mish-mash of new and semi-used items. They made sure to ask me for a written note they could show to security if they got questioned...it would have been a bit suspicious if someone had noticed what they were loading into their cars!
So, that got rid of a big percentage of my STUFF problem...maybe even enough to stop capitalizing the whole word 'stuff' when I write about it. Maybe now it's time to go to just 'Stuff'. The remainder of my Stuff is either going to be, left in my room for the next resident, given away to friends, shipped home in some very large boxes that I am filling up, checked through with me on the plane on Monday (perks of being a frequent flier...three bags travel free!), or stored at Sharon's house until I come back out this winter for a ski trip!
All in all, it was a lot easier than I thought. Once you get in the "throw it out" mode, it's really easy to purge and reduce. The hardest parts are when I get to things with lots of sentimental value (t-shirts from World Championships, souvenirs from trips to other countries) so I'm saving those things until the end and just keeping what fits in the boxes. I realize that a lot of things I have are things I can purchase again...or, maybe, I might realize they are things I can live without.