The most important thing this morning is to wish my friend, Jeff a Happy Birthday…Jeff, The Daily Ground Hog author, got himself some nice birthday presents that involve electronics and computers…you know…that kind of stuff..but the thing that brought a tear to my eye is…he now has cable and DSL…I messaged him this morning and told him that it was akin to getting your first big boy long pants.  He replied “Bite me”.  Happy Birthday, Jeff…you are one of my favorite people and have been for a very long time…

If you read my ramblings on Facebook, you can probably skip this paragraph….My mother and father left me a horrible mess at their house.  They never ever thru anything away…nothing…my dad’s big issue was the basement..this is where he did a lot of his sculpting and stuck away in drawers some awesome antique things…from old milk bottles (from his dairy days) to old tools, old tin cigarette boxes…oh goodness, I can’t even tell you.  My mother filled the upstairs…she never, ever, ever thru away a greeting card that was sent to her, nor any magazine…boxes of magazine, stashes here and there with string tied around them…With this information, you might assume their house was very cluttered…not so much…as mom got older, she liked to have her knick knacks around her..I will probably be the same way because I love “stuff”.  No, the things mom had, she hoarded into drawers, closets and boxes too.  Cleaning out her file cabinets…plural…I found stuff dating back to before I was born..that is more than 53 years ago…This part drives me nuts…but overall, I’m delighed for the mess.  This is therapy for me…this is learning about who these two people really were…I have had a couple of total break down moments wondering why they couldn’t have shared this with me when they were alive…but they didn’t and now I get to don my surgical gloves and tear into it.  One thing that shocks me…totally shocks me…is that mom took cake decorating classes back in the late 70’s.  She would practice her designs on the back of cookie trays and of course kept them.  When I found the reason for the attention of the mice to one cabinet by the copious amount of mouse droppings, I was shocked to learn she had just placed all of these cake decorating trials back in the cabinet…well, mice from miles around obviously heard about this woman..what I just can’t get over is she did this before she ever moved into this house in 1984 so she moved the cabinet from her old house to this house without cleaning it out….I HATE MOUSE DROPPINGS!!!

Those of you who have been reading me for awhile know of my very complicated history with my mother.  I have some freedom now.  I had heard from many people with difficult mother/daughter relationships that peace would come with her death.  It has and it is…it softly lighting on my shoulder and changing my perspective… it is over and I’m on my way back “UP” emotionally.

Onward and Upward…

Until next time….