Someday.
I’ve decided that someday is a dangerous word.
This realization came to me as I cleaned out the storage room early one Saturday.
I woke up at 5 a.m., and by 5:30 I was pulling out the past. In another lifetime, I collected things obsessively. Someday they were going to be worth money. Someday I was going to sell them on eBay and make a fortune.
This includes Rubbermaid tubs full of collectible Christmas ornaments. I would buy two of every one I thought was going to be popular. Years went by, and I didn’t sell them. They are taking up space in my storage room. Slowly, I put a few in garage sales, and some didn’t even sell.
I did the same thing with my Snoopy collection. For years, I was obsessed with Peanuts characters, especially Snoopy and Lucy.
I’d buy everything I saw at garage sales, and people gave me Snoopy items for presents. In this storage room, I had three or four boxes of Snoopy paraphernalia, everything from unopened chocolate-Christmas-candy boxes with an ornament on top to baby bottles with Snoopy on them.
I found a sack of little metal toy Snoopy cars I remember being delirious about finding on sale at a toy store. They had crackled paint because of being exposed to the changing temperatures in the storage room
I opened them — destroying my revered Mint in Package status — and threw the worst ones away. I kept a couple that my nephew could play with when he visits.
The big box in the corner of my storage room was the one that made me the saddest. A relative once gave me Snoopy, Charlie Brown and Lucy costumes. They were oversized rubber heads of the characters, and Lucy came with her yellow dress.
I was saving them. Someday I was going to wear them to a party, or sell them. They were collectible. I loved them.
When I opened the box and got out Snoopy as the Red Baron, I saw that his nose was falling apart. The rubber had deteriorated, and he was ruined. I pulled on it a little, and it came apart. I reluctantly put him in the recycling bin.
Lucy had some bad spots, and Charlie Brown’s head was like an orange that had been forgotten in the drawer in the refrigerator.
He was wearable, but barely. Lucy wasn’t as bad, but she wasn’t pretty. Time had taken its toll on her, too.
I was saving them for someday, and someday never came.
I realized how often I say “someday.”
Someday I’m going to frame the pictures from my brother’s wedding — five years ago.
Someday I’m going to paint that buffet taking up room in the garage.
Someday I’m going to wear that shirt I bought on sale that doesn’t really go with anything.
Someday I’m going to get organized. (If I had a dime for every time I’ve said that, I could retire.)
We even ask the people featured in our Front and Centers to fill in the blank on that question: Someday I’ll ….
Our interview subjects give all kinds of answers about trips they want to take, etc.
A friend’s mother recently died unexpectedly. She was only 44. I wonder what her “someday” list was?
Most of us have one. I realize my financial adviser wouldn’t agree, but sometimes I wonder if instead of investing and saving for “someday,” we should just do it now.
I realize that’s not always possible, and we do have to be responsible. It doesn’t do much good to have dreams if you end up living in your car.
But sometimes someday never comes. Things ruin or go out of style, and the opportunity passes.
So, I repacked the storage room with smaller boxes and took some things into the house to enjoy.
Now, not someday.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.