So those of you who know what a whole-hearted U2 fan I am are now expecting a paean to my four prophets of Irish fame. But … you will be disappointed. That is not what this post is about.

It’s about things much more mundane. It’s about a box of very suburban cloth-lined wicker baskets which I purchased from Costco sometime last year. Early last year. I NEEDED those cloth-lined wicker baskets to beautify my home … all three of them in their perfectly cascading sizes. In fact, I needed them so badly that I NEVER even opened the box. I could never quite get my mind around how I was going to beautify my home with their perfectly cascading sizes. So I left them in their box and their perfection. For I did not want to ruin them.

Until yesterday when I finally worked up the courage to take them out of the box and make use of them. Perfectly cascading sizes be damned. I had the kernel of an idea and thought that just perhaps the pictures on the box might be ignored for once and I might use them as I pleased. I might even break the box picture rules.

So … I went in search of the box. I began in the garage for that is where I last remembered seeing them. The garage (as most of you know, is full of a combination of our AwakeFriend’s worldly possessions which are important and long outused things of ours which might more appropriately be referred to as “crap”). The box was not there. I did find some other things and (since the trash men had not yet cometh) we were able to get rid of several large empty boxes and other large trash items. Some of which spilled those vile packing peanuts all over the yard. We made the kids (it was Latin day so there were about 7 of them) clean them up. They looked like a midget chain gang out there picking up packing peanuts that had scattered in the wind.

Next I went to the unfinished storage room. There were still more empty boxes here and corpses of old computers in various stages of decomp. But … no box of cloth-lined wicker boxes in perfectly cascading sizes.

I went to my fabric storage closet. Nope.

The closet that contains all of LightHusband’s old uniforms which we keep and he will NEVER wear again, because he will NEVER be that skinny again and really why would he want to. Nope … no box there.

LightHusband’s office … I won’t tell you what a disaster that was.

LightChildren’s playroom for which I could barely open the door. But still … no box of cloth-lined wicker baskets in perfectly cascading sizes.

Up the stairs went I to the guest room which at the moment looks like a clutter barn off a small side road somewhere in the nether regions of southwestern Virginia. No box.
To our closet; our large walk-in closet in which I found shoes long since unworn. Pictures which should hang on other walls than ours. But …. no box.

In short, over the course of several opportunities and probably 3 hours I searched every nook and cranny this house has several times over. But I did not find the box. No … it remains hanging in my vision like a Klingon talking to Captain Kirk via teleconferencing on the bridge of the Enterprise. Hanging out there in space with nothing around it to give it context.

However …. here is what I did find:

A LOT of crap that we need to give away or sell at a yard sale. I prefer the give away option because it doesn’t involve so much organization.

We definitely have a lot of little boys and girls clothes so those of you with small boys and girls need to come over go through some fo this stuff.

LightGirls old doll cradle which made me nostalgic for precisely one moment, then I got mad again because I couldn’t find the box.

Another long forgotten Costco purchase of a “3-Tier Market Basket” which I will put to use to help organize my sewing area.

A bath towel that’s missingness had been making me slightly nutty.

My tupperware cereal container – and the fact that it was missing made buying cereal in large boxes from Costco slightly unwieldy.

More fabric stashed in more places than I think is healthy for any one person. I think it’s just possible that I have an illness.

I think there were a couple of other things but they are slipping my mind right now.

But consarnit … I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. So if any of you have been to my house in the last what ever amount of time and you remember seeing that box with the cloth-lined wicker baskets in perfect cascading order and you remember where they are? Would you please tell me? Pretty please … I really don’t need anything else making me nuts these days.