My Mom, the Pack Rat

I'll start by saying I've seen a lot worse pack rats. But, my Mom is definitely in the camp that likes to hold onto anything and everything. Particularly the stuff with some sentimental value attached. Which is hard for me to explain to my husband, the man with a heart of stone.

I guess I'd fall somewhere in between the two. I definitely have my share of things I want to keep - perhaps forever? But, I'm also known to go on a crazy cleaning spree and shred every last bit of my grad school, college, high school *and* middle school notebooks and papers that have been sitting in my garage, all in one weekend. Without shedding a tear or looking back. Because I'm just crazy like that.

But enough about me, I was talking about my mother here.

I remember when I was young, we'd have to clean out our closets every once in a while to make room for the new toys, clothes and stuff coming in. But, we'd have to make sure and put everything we wanted to throw away in a separate box so that Mom could go through it first. There was no getting past that lady. If there was something that she felt was worth holding onto, even when we insisted it really wasn't useful or cool anymore, she ignored us and hid it away somewhere where we'd never find it and tease her about it later.

The other night we were enjoying dinner together and the topic came up about that day's newsworthy events. Most notably, my childhood idol, Michael Jackson, had died. I have always loved his music, but when he was at the top of his game I was the most impressionable. And, in a rare moment of wanting to fit in with every other teeny-bopper around, I somehow convinced my parents to buy me a rhinestone-studded glove necklace, with MJ's initials at the top (because, you know, you might not know what the glove was referring to).

My Mom, having not yet read my post of the day, commented what strange timing, since she had just found my old necklace while cleaning out her jewelry chest the other day.

And so, instead of teasing her, the conversation went something like:

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Hey Breezy, I found that Michael Jackson necklace of yours the other day.

SHUT UP. You did not.

Yep, I sure did.

Wow, that's crazy. I just blogged about it! Did you know that?

Nope, haven't read your blog yet. But now you're going to have to blog that you found it!

Totally. And, maybe I'll wear the necklace to work next week too.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I didn't wear the necklace to work. I'm pretty sure my coworkers might look at me funny if I tried to convince them that it's cool to wear leg warmers, scrunchies, different colored layered socks, and necklaces with a bedazzled MJ glove again. Although, I do get away with wearing my new idol's symbol on my chest all the time, so you never know.


Mom, thanks for digging this out of the attic, or jewelry chest, or wherever you managed to hide it all these years, and dust off the cobwebs of my past. I keep forgetting that sometimes you're right. ;-)

It's definitely fun to relive some of those old memories from time to time. I can't wait to do the same with Logan someday too.