the 33-year-old frosting rose

I am currently in idaho because I am a good and selfless daughter. ok, so maybe there are other, less laura ingalls wilder reasons. like, I can't help but want to go through every square inch of my parents 3300 square foot home with countless closets and crannies (otherwise known as crammies) saying to my mother, "really, you want to keep this? I mean, it's ugly and out-dated and serves no purpose past or present and certainly won't serve any future purpose other than sitting on this overstuffed shelf." and so continues the hours and the days. closet after closet, cupboard after cupboard. you try having 4 children, and being raised by obsessive compulsive religiously guilt ridden, frugal as f*@# parents from the depression and not having a house full of shit you don't need.

examples: warranty manuals for a cassette deck purchased in 1983, wrapping paper from every birthday gift ever received and opened, carefully removed and then folded up and put away for future birthdays, 46 (I counted) unburned candles, a sears christmas catalog from 1988, one small lumpy unrecognizable item I could not identify until my mom informed me was a decorative edible rose from their wedding cake, shoved in their collective faces almost 33 YEARS AGO. a 33 year-old frosting rose.

now of course there are other awesome finds like my dad's banjo picks that I remember putting on the small of my childhood fingers, and the porcelain grape tea set that my mom and I would tea party together with, and oh, the soft and lovely floral of the sheets that covered my mother's 16-year-old bed.

today is only day 2. one day down and pounds and pounds of garbage thrown. but also, good times spent with my mom, and happy memories remembered. and the bad memories? put in their proper place - the city dump.