caf ~5:45, protein cocoa 29g, creatine+
on-track showered and out the door "on-time" (7:15?)
7:29 opened the ofc \o/
PB double-decker, vitamin
Dreamed we were moving out of Annandale - and so were they. Our stuff was more chaotically commingled and the house was even bigger, complete with mazey sub-basement rooms. There was a lot of LEGO to pack, some legit mine and some gifted when the boys were kids. I wanted it back since they obviously didn't care about it anymore. But I guess it felt too transgressive to ask, so I swept up loose not-my bricks into my baggie if no one was looking.
One LEGO dream image particularly popped out at me on waking: one of the earliest small LEGO "Space" sets, #442 "Space Shuttle" (1979) (which ironically didn't resemble actual "space shuttles" nearly as much as #487 "Space Cruiser" (1978) ). This was one of the not-my items and I felt particularly jealous about having given it away only for it to gather dust in a cabinet in one of several abandoned sub-basements. In reality I gave to my other sister's kids when the eldest was quite young, so it's probably hand-me-down'ed to grandnieces by now. I don't feel bad about that.
#442 "Space Shuttle" (1979)  |
#487 "Space Cruiser" (1978)  |
This would have been something I got for a birthday or Christmas stocking-stuffer the year it came out, so, 10-11ish. I suspect it says something about hungering for the sense of endless possibility and adventure those toys invoked at that age.
Last fall when I was deconstructing/reworking D+D module B2 to DM under 5E rules, I read a forum post that pinpointed one big appeal of "Old School Rules": they were incomplete! and therefore demanded some creativity and group collab, to figure out how to rule things that the official rules didn't cover. That, on top of the strongly-encouraged advice from Gygax and other designers to vary creatures and magic items to keep the game fresh and mysterious/wondrous for players. LEGO has also very much strayed from that ideology of "simplicity and mutability as endless possibility" since the 1978 minifig revolution.
If the sense of boundless possibility and creativity was a feature of that part of my childhood, so was the inclination to pocket things I thought wouldn't be missed: cash from my sister's jeans heaped in the bathroom, deep discounts from Bradlees via price-sticker switching, a few books from the high school library. It tapered off as I matured into my 20s; but as late as the Willowbrook bookstore era, I remember as a receiving clerk sneaking a freebie promo ice-cream maker out to my car, and having to sneak it back in when the store manager mentioned they were expecting that promo freebie.
Maybe those two themes (sense of adventure, crossing the line from scavenging into misdemeanor) are linked somehow. Or maybe not; sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.