MS. Pack-Rat, If You Please (Monday's Writing Essential)

This week’s writing challenge: write about the lust for stuff.

Ideas:

• Write about the thing you most wanted a kid.  (Remember that thing that went zip when it moved, bop when it stopped and whrrr when it stood still?)
• Write about what happened when you got the thing you most wanted as a kid.
• Write about the thing you most want now.
• Write about all the things you have accumulated without the slightest knowledge of how they came to be in your possession.
• Write about the little treasures you surround yourself with.

I was inspired by a member's post to submit my 1st GWE post nearly 2 weeks ago. This week's submission was inspired by the ONE & ONLY, Len Maxwell, and his post, I’m Not a Pack Rat.

My 2 kids tell me this all too often, "Mom, you save everything!" And in response, I tell them, "There's a reason for that..." Mom's moved a lot, been ripped off (a lot!), ma happens to be very sentimental, ma loves that...The reasons change depending on the situation at the given time. My last move the summer of 2010, an ad popped up on the TV screen spouting, "Call 1-800-PACK-RAT!" I immediately popped up too, because that ad had my name on it!!! I called the # & my 16' pod was delivered within 2 days (I was awed by the entire process)! Took me 3 weeks to fill that sucker with all the stuff I had!

But, once upon a time, Mom was a neat freak, a fuss-budget (anyone remember that one?), a perfectionist~I had a place for E-V-E-R-Y-thing. I was reminded of that one day back in college, chit-chatting away in a dorm room talking about roommate stuff, when one of my roommates piped in, "You could probably take anything you want from Mari, she won't notice it. BUT, the minute you move it, she'll notice it in a heartbeat!" Of course, the room full of people laughed in agreement.

Well, Mom is a long way from those college days, something like 25, 30, um 35...ah, you don't really want to know! But know this, once you have kids, there's no such thing as perfection~that was lost in a heartbeat, too!

Note: I realize I'm late with this prompt, but I wasn't aware of it 'til I saw Len's post earlier today. I received Sun, Wed, Thur, Fri, Sat prompts in my emails, sooooo...