Asking for a Friend:) COLLECTOR vs. HOARDER, What’s the Difference?

According to http://www.dictionary.com, a COLLECTOR is a person that accumulates, and a HOARDER is a person that accumulates for preservation and/or future use. Both appear to be rooted in acquisitiveness, so how do you know when the venerable 1930’s Vintage Flex drinking straw has broken the camel’s back, and sent you to the dark side?

A Sample of Laurie’s Lovely Depression Era Glass

Like Francie Lanoo, the lead character in the novel IF NOT 4 U and Some Shoes (a collector of shoes, mementoes, London trinkets, and some inherited lovelies that I won’t elaborate on or I’ll give away part of the plot), I like to accumulate.   Full confession, I have a total of four pursuits on the go, and can’t see myself saying, “enough is enough” to any of them (why would I, when they all make me so happy?)  This list includes:

Depression Era Glass (pictured above): brightly colored, oddly shaped, ornate plates, goblets, and serving dishes that I often use as mismatched table settings.

Original Artwork: which I began purchasing as soon as I started earning an income … that has pretty much covered every wall and every horizontal surface in my home to the extent that I’m now contemplating securing pieces to the ceilings so I can display more.

Hearts: including both natural ones like a leaf of arugula (NO, I don’t keep the actual leaf, I keep a photo record of it), and fabricated ones like paperweights and jewelry.

Another of Laurie’s Lovelies

Mementoes With Significance (good and bad): like a Spanish red-leather portfolio given to me by someone special that reminds me of all the good in the world, and a tiny diamond stud earring given to me by someone psychotic that reminds me of all the bad in the world.

All under one roof, these possessions do amount to a lot of stuff. So, should I be worried? Umm, let’s see. According to an article entitled What’s the Difference between Hoarding and Collecting posted by TLC, obsessive hoarding is a mental health condition that falls under the realm of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), with three telltale signs that an individual’s ‘accumulation’ has gone too far:

1. An inability to discard objects.
2. An impaired ability to function due to the hoarding.
3. A cluttered living space that has become so filled with objects that it can’t be used effectively.

Assuming that these three conditions are the tell-all, how do I measure up?

1. Yes, I have an inability to discard my objects. In fact, I can see myself, one day, renting an off-site storage container to accommodate what my home can’t.
2. No, I am not in any way functionally impaired by the collections’ existence. Rather, I believe I’m enhanced and happier as a result of them.
3. No, my living space is not cluttered. Quite the contrary; I maintain my favored minimalist interior aesthetic simply by stuffing closets to the brim.

Because I have answered yes to only one of the symptoms, I’m going to go out on a limb and diagnose myself as NOT being a hoarder. Which is good to know, because my glass collection is lacking in Dell Glass Company Tulip pieces, in the color amethyst.

To any fellow accumulators out there reading this blog. I’m curious. What is your pursuit, and what is your diagnosis: COLLECTOR or HOARDER?

MUSIC: The Proposed Soundtrack in Francie Lanoo’s Head

If you’re a music lover like me, the songs that were playing in the background during life’s most memorable moments—i.e the first kiss, a heart-wrenching break-up, while laughing hysterically on an amusement park ride—somehow got catalogued in the brain for all eternity, and whenever they are reheard, trigger a vivid flashback to the moment they made their impactful impression. Sometimes the recollections are smile-inducing. Sometimes they provoke a good cry.  Always, they have me singing along.

Photo Credit: tumblr.com

While writing the novel IF NOT 4 U and Some Shoes, I listened to a lot of music, and because I was plucking story arcs from my teenage/young-adult experiences (first love, coming-of-age, hanging out at parties, taking road trips with my friends), I got nostalgic and listened to my own buried-in-the-back-of-the-brain favourites.  A word of warning, there’s a segment of the soundtrack-of-my-youth that is timeless and classic, like The Ramones, Jackson Browne, Badfinger, The Who, The Allman Brothers Band, Bruce Springsteen, Queen etc; there’s another segment that is  a collection of really bad one hits wonders; and on a seriously-wish-we-could-forget level,  there’s a final segment that involves phrases like Boogie-Oogie-Oogie. Regardless of the flavour, it’s all fun to listen to … once in a while.

For fun, I kept a log of some of those old songs, the ones that I thought conveyed Francie Lanoo’s sentiment during the most poignant moments of her life. I’ve listed a selection of them below, and would suggest to readers  that they simultaneously listen to the songs while working their way through IF NOT 4 U and Some Shoes.

Sure, the exercise will probably result in a few eye-rolls, groans, and mumblings of the word hokey,  but I bet it’ll also result in some smiles and emotional ahhhs.

(Quick Clarification: IF NOT 4 U and Some Shoes’  chapters aren’t actually called chapters, they’re called FOOT NOTES … because the book is about shoes and feet and such. Get it?)

FOOT NOTE ONE (during The Big Bang Moment)  Suggested Song: I SAW THE LIGHT IN YOUR EYES         Artist: Todd Rungren

FOOT NOTE TWO (At the Dance, Before Francie & Berkeley First Speak)  Suggested Song: I’D LOVE YOU TO WANT ME      Artist: Lobo

FOOT NOTE TWO (during The First Dance Together)  Suggested Song: MAKE IT WITH YOU                          Artist: Bread

FOOT NOTE TWO (while Francie and Berkeley are Sitting in a Tree)  Suggested Song: I WANNA BE WITH YOU      Artist: The Raspberries

FOOT NOTE SIX (on the First Valentine’s Day)  Suggested Song: BABY I LOVE YOU                             Artist: Andy Kim

FOOT NOTE SEVEN (at Berkeley’s Birthday Party)  Suggested Song: LAY A LITTLE LOVIN’ ON ME      Artist: Robin McNamara

FOOT NOTE FOURTEEN (Post Francie’s Ski Trip)  Suggested Song: JUST GIMME SOME KIND OF SIGN      Artist: Sattalites

FOOT NOTE TWENTY (While Playing With the Mistletoe)    Suggested Song: GO ALL THE WAY                             Artist: Eric Carmen &The Raspberries

FOOT NOTE THIRTY (Francie in Italy)   Suggested Song: SOMETHING’S WRONG WITH ME      Artist: Austin Roberts

FOOT NOTE THIRTY-ONE (New Year’s Eve Party)  Suggested Song: NEVER GONNA FALL IN LOVE AGAIN   Artist: Eric Carmen

FOOT NOTE THIRTY-FIVE (At The R.H. High School Graduation Dance)  Suggested Song: MAKE ME DO ANYTHING YOU WANT    Artist: A Foot in Cold Water

FOOT NOTE THIRTY-SIX (when Francie and Berkeley Head Off to College)  Suggested Song: FOOL (IF YOU THINK IT’S OVER)        Artist: Chris Rea

FOOT NOTE THIRTY-EIGHT (Meeting Garner Vale)  Suggested Song: SO INTO YOU                                  Artist: Atlanta Rhythm Section

FOOT NOTE FORTY-ONE (Reminiscing During The College Years)  Suggested Song: CRAZY LOVE        Artist: Poco

FOOT NOTE FORTY-FIVE (At the Cemetery)  Suggested Song: JUST REMEMBER I LOVE YOU             Artist: Firefall

FOOT NOTE FORTY-NINE (After Saying Goodbye in the Airport)  Suggested Song: WITHOUT YOU         Artist: Harry Nilsson

FOOT NOTE FIFTY (At College Graduations, Worlds Apart)  Suggested Song: YOU ARE EVERYTHING        Artist: The Stylistics

FOOT NOTE FIFTY-ONE (during Francie’s Time in London)  Suggested Song: I AIN’T GOT TIME ANYMORE            Artist: The Glass Bottle

FOOT NOTE FIFTY-SIX (Francie Solo Dancing)  Suggested Song: DANCING IN THE MOONLIGHT          Artist: Baha Men

FOOT NOTE FIFTY-SEVEN (Nostalgic Drive Around Town)  Suggested Song:  LOVE DON’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE              Artist: Rose Royce

FOOT NOTE FIFTY-EIGHT (Dancing with Robert Matthews)  Suggested Song: EVERYTHING I OWN        Artist: Bread

EPILOGUE (In The Hammock)   Suggested Song: EVERLASTING LOVE     Artist: Carl Carlton

The novel contains a whopping 59 chapters, correction: FOOT NOTES, so this list only provides background music for roughly half of the story. If any musically-inclined readers are interested, feel free to suggest some other songs to fill in the blank spots (from any era of music, not just my golden-oldie era). Or, if a reader believes that my musical associations (listed above) are way off base, please send a list recommended replacements.  I’m all ears.