Little magnetic shopping list board that sticks on the fridge. Lost a really wonderful dog a few years ago and had written a list for her that included a lot of quality of life stuff for her final days.

After she passed, I just never wrote on that board again. It got packed and moved to a new house where it sits once again on the refrigerator. Time has hardened the ink on the board and it won’t come off again, but I just physically can’t throw it away.

It’s stupid. She’s been gone 4 years now. I’m just powerless xD

A rock.

A rock that is flatter than it is thick. In college my friend picked it up and wrote PUNK on it. It became punk rock. We ended up becoming best friends and roommates for the rest of college and I ended up with the punk rock when we graduated. Fast forward many years and I hosted a party he attended. When he departed I gifted him with the punk rock. Its something insignificant but means so much.

I don’t have a brother but he’s as close as it gets.

I have a paper plate with a restaurant “receipt” written on it. There’s no way corpo financial would have reimbursed me for a meal where the receipt was written on a paper plate but I kept it as a memento of friends I met at the time.

I have a flyer for an event that my highschool crush gave me and I jokingly told her I’d treasure it forever.

I guess I’m just not a guy who can go back on a promise like that.

I’ve a small fractured chunk of cast iron from the first vehicle I replaced an engine in.

I (a guy) think I still have a small plastic off-brand Lego in my desk. I spent a weekend with my high school crush and we found a bunch of them and had goofy fun with them.

Last I heard she’d moved away, married a woman, and had a successful career in science. I doubt she thinks of me, but I’m glad she did well.

My high school report cards. (From 1983.)

On my first day of grade 8, the science teacher asked if anyone had a bill for a demonstration. I volunteered my $5 bill. He proceeded to douse it in some chemical and torch it, to the amusement of the class. It burned for a few seconds but the bill was unharmed. At first I didn’t spend it because I liked the story, but now I also won’t spend it because it’s the last paper bill I have (all Canadian bills have been plastic for a while).

I kept a sachet of artificial sweetener given to me randomly one afternoon by a friend I had a crush on. Neither of us used the stuff, we were just being silly.

I had it for a couple of years and kinda forgot about it, then the friend killed themself and it became unthinkable to get rid of it. Maybe a decade later I could finally bring myself to see it as just a pack of stale chemicals and throw it out.

A router, the kind you use for wood work.

It was my father’s tool, and probably as old as I am. It doesn’t work and parts are no longer available for it. I’ve since bought a new one. But I still have the old one that will never work.

It’s an egg shaped piece of marble from my mother, which is now sitting on my desk. It used to have a sticker labelled ‘Echt Marmor’ which means ‘real marble’ in german. I think it is older than I am. My mother is still around, but I’ve moved quite far away and this egg is currently my only keepsake.

My deceased mom’s drivers license. Carry it with me in my wallet.

I have the knob off my first oven. When it burnt out my landlord opted to buy a new one instead of getting a new coil so I swiped the knob. It was the oven and stove I taught myself to cook on, I wouldn’t be who I am today of I hadn’t had to spend every night guessing the temp from that worn out knob.

Found a massive pine cone in Rome when I visited about 24 years ago.

Not really sure why I kept it but I did.

A blanket my mom made me that’s as old as me. That blanket kept me warm when I was little and I’ll never get rid of it 😌