No! More! T-shirts!

Because my dear, sweet Lizard husband has been working weekends for about three months now, I have tons of Saturday time to work on quilts, work on snowflakes, work on the garden (weather accommodating, of course), or do that most beloved task of all... clean!

On this particular Saturday, I had decided it was time to clean up the snowflake work station, also known as The Office. It's where the computers are set up. Too small for a bedroom, too small for bookcases, and too small for bikes.

The Office was home to three stacks of pizza boxes converted into snowflake stiffening stations, plus eight stacking sealable plastic containers of snowflakes and probably enough for a whole bookshelf full of rust-proof pins, paintbrushes, beads, jewelry parts, googly eyes, glitter, fingernail polish and various stiffening agents. I started working on this project when one of the relocation trips took me to a stack of T-shirts in the main bedroom that had not been able to fit into the guest bathroom closet, which is where I've been keeping an unbelievably large stack of T-shirts, as well as towels, dish towels and hot pads.

Beneath the stack of T-shirts in the bedroom was the stack of joined but unfinished snowflake motif projects. I had found three in the snowflake work station that needed to join the stack. The stack bothered me, but so did the stack of T-shirts. This was going to be another of those days when I moved from cleaning project to cleaning project because so many cleaning projects lurk in every single space in the house.

I decided I should go ahead and find a real place for both the unfinished motif projects as well as the T-shirts. I went to the guest bathroom closet to begin sorting T-shirts. The Office wasn't done yet, and the bedroom stacks were not done yet, but the closet was more important, in my mind.

I've long had a collection of T-shirts and jerseys from bike rides I've wanted to one day convert into a quilt. Well, in reality, it's now going to be something like ten quilts, but you get the idea. It has been way too many years (at least five) since I weeded through the T-shirts in the closet, so it was time.

For the record, I'm keeping 16 T-shirts in the closet for wearing when T-shirt weather returns. I'm also keeping five long-sleeved T-shirts because you can almost always wear long-sleeved T-shirts in Colorado. Too bad more rides don't give long-sleeved T-shirts instead of short-sleeved T-shirts. I'm also keeping five tank tops for workouts and riding the trainer.

Before I get to the point of this entire blog post, I have to share a favorite of each, because, well, you know, memories. Some T-shirts never die, no matter what, because of the memories they hold.

First, the very best tank top in the whole world. It's from my very first Ride the Rockies. I guess you could say it's my first official purchased Ride the Rockies souvenir. I wore it to run when I could still run. I've worn it on my trainer more times than I can count. I don't wear tank tops too much anymore, except on the trainer. And it's likely this one won't be making an appearance there anymore because I want it to stay the crisp white it's managed to stay even though I sweat like crazy. This top is 14 years old this year. It's still one of my favorite shirts of all time because of the logo on the front. And because of the most memorable Ride the Rockies logo of the ride's 37-year history. I love this shirt.


My favorite long-sleeved T-shirt also is Ride the Rockies, same year, same emotions. I still proudly wear this to work on casual Fridays when the weather is cool. It's a great shirt to wear the day before the new year's route is announced, too. (Which means I'll be wearing it this Friday!)


Now come the T-shirts. Quite a bit more difficult to pick a favorite. Too many!!! (And that's pretty much why I'm writing this blog post anyway...)

You'll notice there is a bit of a theme. I probably don't have to explain three of these are Ride the Rockies T-shirts.

In addition to my Sleepless in Seattle T-shirt and my Eagles concert T-shirt are my first Ride the Rockies T-shirt with that incredible logo, my last Ride the Rockies T-shirt, which celebrated my fifth tour with my husband as well as the tour's 30th anniversary, and my favorite T-shirt of all time, the Ride the Rockies T-shirt I won on the top of Independence Pass (not for singing the national anthem as I'd hoped, but for having the right digit on the end of my credit card).


Good times! I can hardly wait for the next Ride the Rockies route announcement!

But this brings me back to the reason I'm writing this. I finally got done cleaning out that closet, and I couldn't believe the number of T-shirts from rides, donating blood, volunteering for charities, Race for the Cure, Snowshoe for the Cure, The Lion King, Super Bowls and Stanley Cups! My heavens, I could clothe a village.

Down in the basement lurks a big plastic bin of Race for the Cure T-shirts I've collected from friends and co-workers for the last decade. They will be made into quilts at some point.

This day of organizing and trying to make the house more presentable while my beloved is working away resulted in the donation of 58 more T-shirts to the pre-quilt collection!!! Along with six long-sleeved T-shirts and seven tank tops. Heavens to Betsy! I can't even get them all to fit!!!

We are signed up for one more ride this year, and we hope to be participants in Ride the Rockies, if the stars align. But I'm putting these rides on notice right here and right now.

We don't need any more T-shirts!!!

Please, do not give us any more T-shirts!

And now, I can get back to organizing The Office, which was the original day's goal...

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