The Over-Abundance of Things

I have, what I would say, is a zillion photos of J and of things I see every day. Photos from the camera, photos form the phone and the iPad, photos of the house, dinner guests, birthday parties, trips to the beach, shopping, of J wearing an orange wig looking very much like Nicki Minaj. Photos at the park of J going down the slide, hanging on the monkey bars, riding her bike, photos of trips, and then photos to edit, to Photoshop before they are print worthy and then there are the videos. Videos I’ve taken from the iPhone, iPad, and that J has taken. And I have recorded voice messages, ideas I’ve noted, to do lists, J doing “tutorial” recordings – like the ones she sees on You Tube.

It’s endless. I am drowning in all of this stuff and I have not made even one photo album – yet. With this over-abundance of our lives frozen in time (oh, yeah, and forgot to mention recordings of J singing “Let it Go”), I am perplexed as to what to do with it all that lives on the computer, on my Malaysia and Italy hard drives, flash drives, and a Passport (drive). And CDs. I have copies of copies to the point that I don’t know what the hell I have any more, how much of it is repeat and then there’s the mountain of another version of all of this stuff on my laptop at work, that I need to remove since it is taking up hard drive space.

It is an infinite stream and yet it’s all foldered away digitally, sitting on the desktop, still in the camera ready for download. I print a few here and there, I promise to Photoshop a new set to place between glass and hang on the wall and others to send to grandma.…

Life has redefined complex, crazy busy, what you are expected to know, memorize, do, backup, and create (yet another new password). I have two phones, two car chargers, two home chargers, earphones that work on one phone or device but not the the other. I have written instructions (that I created) to explain to guests (babysitters) how to turn on the TV (one remote), turn up the volume (another remote), play a DVD, and a Blue Ray (another remote); note: all remotes have volume control (not all work though).

Isn’t this supposed to get faster and make life easier? And when does that happen?

Please? Someone, anyone?

—SBM