PHOTO OVERLOAD

I was sitting on the couch staring at the pile of photo envelopes sitting on our coffee table when my husband, Steven came into the room. “What are you up to?” he asked as he sat down next to me.

“I'm suppose to be sorting my vacation pictures.” I pointed to the giant pile laying in front of me. “I'm feeling a little overwhelmed.” I sighed.

“How many pictures did you take?” Steven reached over and picked up one of the envelopes.

“Looking at that pile, I'm going to say hundreds!” I grabbed a pillow and put it behind my head as I leaned back against the couch.

Steven tried to hand my the envelope. “Do you want to start with this one?”

I shook my head. “It's going to take hours to go through all of them and I'm just not feeling it right now.” I sighed.

Steven dropped it back on the pile. “Why'd you take so many pictures?”

I looked over at him shocked. “I was in the Netherlands!” I cried. “It was so beautiful there! I'm surprised I didn't take more!”

Steven shook his head. “Okay, I get it, but how long are these going to stay on the coffee table?”

“I'm hoping that by leaving them out it will be a constant reminder to get working on them.”

“Okay.” He reached over to the pile of coffee table books and grabbed two of the books. “So what's the reason these are still here?” He handed me the two travel books, one about Belgium and Luxembourg and the other Amsterdam. “You're not planning your trip anymore.”

I couldn't help but smile as I took the books from him and began leafing through the Amsterdam book. “Now these have become memory books! I can't put them away!” I stopped at one page. “I've been here.” I pointed to a picture of Anne Frank's House. “I can't even begin to explain the feeling I got when I was inside and heard the siren of a police car in the distance.” I looked over at Steven and shuttered. “It was powerful.” I flipped a few more pages and stopped again. “The Van Gogh Museum, this was amazing!” I picked up the Belgium book and the first page I opened. “Bruges!” I cried. “It's like walking into a painting of a medieval town!” I looked over at Steven. “Did I mention I fell in love with Burges?”

Steven laughed. “You've mentioned it once or twice.”

“I can't really pick a favorite stop, it was all amazing!” I looked over at the pile of pictures again. “I going to need a lot of time to go though all of them.” I sighed. “While I'm trying to decide which ones to keep, I'm going to be reliving the entire vacation.” I looked over at Steven. “That's going to take a lot of time.”

Steven nodded. “So, what you're trying to tell me is that this could be sitting on the coffee table for months.”

I put the travel books back on the book pile and moved the stack of photos closer to the books.
“I guess this doesn't look very good, does it.”

Steven just shook his head.

I tried pushing them behind the African violet that sat in the middle of the table,

“I can still see them.” Steven said.

“I know.” I sighed. “They do look awful sitting here.”

“Yup.” Steven grabbed the remote and turned on the television.

“Okay, I guess I really don't need the visual to remind me to go through them.” I stood up and adjusted the envelopes as they began to slip and slide in my arms. “It's not like I need to leave the box of pasta out on the counter to remind me what I'm making for dinner.” I laughed.

“We're having pasta for dinner?” Steven sounded interested.

“Maybe I should have left the box out on the counter for you to see.”