Day Sixty-Three: Gnomes

Since I am currently in the process of packing my stuff up to move out of my house, I am finding a lot of things I completely forgot I had. So in the midst of packing up four boxes of books, a box of CDs, and
two boxes of DVDs I completely forgot I had, I found the only thing I really ever collected: gnomes.

I never really did understand why I was so drawn to garden gnomes, with their cheerful, peaceful expressions, their wisened, grey looks, and their red and green clothing. But as a teenager, as other girls
were collecting teen magazines, I was collecting little happy yard-dwellers.

I have five or six gnomes now, of all shapes and sizes. One is riding a turtle, one's got a book, and one is a wee one-inch tall. I used to place them in corners of my room and in strange places, seeming as though they were peeking out of their hiding places. For some reason, they felt like little talismans, that protected me from forces of evil.

But when I left for college, my mother dutifully collected them all and lined them up in the top of my closet. "They creep me out," she said. It was understandable.

But now as I'm going to be entering a new place, I'm looking forward to be putting my happy little gnomes back where they'll be hiding in corners of my room.

And yes. I realize I'm extremely weird.