While breathingfire.com isn’t exactly a personal blog in the way doahleigh is, I felt like Brad’s readers might appreciate a little insight into who he is. A more personal touch to the usually stoic website. So allow me…his lovely girlfriend, the person who knows him best second only to his mother…to let you in on one of his many endearing quirks.

Brad? He’s a box-saver. He saves boxes like no other person I know. I don’t mean boxes, like the kind you can break down and store neatly away until some day when you might need them to conveniently pack up your house and move to another state. No, I’m talking about boxes, as in packaging. Basically he’s a packaging pack rat.

I was first exposed to this tendency (freakish obsession?) when he received a Foreman grill for christmas. We eagerly unpacked it, grilled some delicious hamburgers, and cleaned up the mess. Then Brad reached for the grill’s box. I watched from the corner of my eye, not wanting to question his motives just yet. I watched him remove all the additional packaging from the box and lay it out on the counter. Still I said nothing. But then he began to meticulously replace the styrofoam supports around the grill, and when he wrapped the whole thing in its plastic bag, I could stay silent no longer. Honey, what the hell are you doing?

He explained that he likes to package everything back up and store it that way. Why? Because he wants to keep it nice. I argued that with all the work that’s required, we’d be far less likely to ever use the grill again. Surely we’d be intimidated by the unpacking and repacking, and instead opt for greasy burgers from Wendy’s. But no, he insisted on the packaging. And we haven’t used the Foreman since.

The packaging problem goes far beyond kitchen appliances though. Brad keeps all the boxes for his electronics too (Nintendo DS, iPod, phone, etc) because he thinks he might sell them someday, and who doesn’t appreciate a used product that comes in its original packaging? I suppose he might be right. But don’t worry, he doesn’t put his phone back in the box after each use. He uses it far too often for that.

We’ve recently been cleaning out his old room at his parents to prepare for our move to the new apartment. Guess what we found there? Boxes! Boxes for video games, boxes for computer games, boxes for childhood action figures and other items long forgotten. It was a miscellany of boxes! More boxes than there was stuff to put in them!

I think he gets the pack-rattiness from his mom who would absolutely not allow him to give away an old pair of decrepit shoes that he hadn’t worn in years because they were still perfectly good. But I must say, I’m proud of them both. They purged bagfuls of stuff this weekend during the clean out. Things that were kept for years…just in case.

And ya know? I think I may have even seen a box or two in the trash.

(As a disclaimer, I really do find this trait endearing. Oh yes, I tease him endlessly about it, but if he ever stopped, I know I’d miss this part of Brad. Besides, did I mention that I keep scraps of paper and fabric because maybe, someday I might find a use for them?)