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 Café 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.