02 July 2013

paper trail or lost and found

I was doing my taxes (asked for an extension this year) and that led me to search through folders looking for some lost receipts.

There's too much paper in my life.  I want to throw out some of these things.  Then again, when I look at the scraps, I see things that I've forgotten:

I visited my mom from June 15 - 19 2005... I traveled alone.   Ouch. I'm just noticing that I had to be at the airport at 6:00 am and I flew from LaGuardia .  That ticket was cheap ( $258.00)  but it was also the flight that caused H forevermore to reject with a passion ANY travel plans that involve LaGuardia.   Lo siento; it was an accident, I didn't mean to leave from LaGuardia.    (rip - throw out one piece of paper). 

In 2005 I also got a Washington DC hotel on priceline for one weekend in April so that H could take his Board Exams.  Did L and I travel with him?  I'm not sure.  I'll have to look to see if he drove or took the train... if he drove, we went too  (rip).

Then, a few weeks later H traveled to Atlanta, Georgia for work.  I have a "statement" for his extra expenses at the Ritz-Carlton.   $6.00 on the "Honor Bar"... Ha ha.  I bet that was a tiny bag of peanuts from the refrigerator in his room.   It really isn't like H to do that.  I'm not surprised by the $14.00 from "Ocean CafĂ© Liquor" because that probably covered one drink at the hotel bar.  (rip).

Oh, look, here are the boarding passes for that trip to Denver in June 2005.  How quaint.  I haven't had an authentic boarding pass in a long time.  (rip ... ooooh real magnetic strips & they don't tear)

What have we here?  A receipt for another trip to Denver in 2004 (2/26 - 3/01).  I traveled alone again and I checked a bag.  Nowadays I wouldn't check the bag for a short trip because I'd be charged. I only paid $236 to United  and that was an easy direct flight compared to the one I would take the next year.   

Oh, this is sad.  In October 2004 we traveled to Tampa Florida for the funeral of H's sister-in-law.   She had a brain tumor and I think she had been sick and slowly getting worse for about 2 years.  H's brother was left with their teenage son.  Her death seemed like the tragedy then, but later we realized that it was just... just a tiny sprout of what would become the real tragedy of our lives. 

See? this is why it's hard to sort through old papers  

Oh, wow.  I just looked at that last paper again and I realized that H traveled alone.  Isn't that sad? When I wrote those paragraphs, I thought I had been with him and, for a second, I even vaguely recalled a photo of that trip.  But, no. 

Somewhere in that folder is the receipt for the next trip we took to Florida.  It was a wedding.  H's brother remarried.  Those are the photos I remembered seeing, and I think that I only connected them with the funeral because they have nothing happy about them except our expressions. 

Sigh. I'm stopping now.  I'm not going to look for any more documents.