My bike has been parked, lonely and neglected, against the wall of the garage all winter. Today as I went out to get in the car, my bike confronted me. It was a sad and emotional confrontation for both of us. But some things had to be said.

Bike: Surprise, surprise, you’re getting in the car. Again. Ignoring me for another day. I get it. I understand…

Me: Hey, Trek, I’m sorry. The weather’s been so bad, you know that. The sidewalks haven’t been clear for weeks.

Bike: Yeah, whatever. I saw Zoe ride her bike yesterday.

Me: Well, she’s 6, and she doesn’t seem to mind riding her bike when it’s 26 degrees outside. It’s a little cold for me…

Bike: Dude, whatever! Just admit that you love your car more than me!

Me: Trek, it’s not even like that…

Bike: Shut up, man! Do you not remember saying that you love me? Do you not remember writing up a whole freakin post about how much you love me?

Me: Of course I remember. I still love you. And this spring, I’m going to buy you a nice, new basket and we’ll have great times again…

Bike: You think you can just buy me a new basket and everything will be okay?!? You can’t just buy my forgiveness! It doesn’t work like that!

Me: Trek, man, I’m sorry…

Bike: No, forget it… You’ve changed. And why don’t you just admit that your feelings have changed… you never even touch me anymore!

Me: That’s not true…

Bike: Oh! Well, moving my handlebars out of the way so you can back out of the garage in that STUPID CAR doesn’t count…

Me: Trek, don’t call the Pilot stupid…

Bike: It is stupid! And why are you taking up for the car?!?

Me: I love both of you, in different ways…

Bike: That hurts, man. That really hurts… *sob* I can tell you that the stupid car doesn’t love you like I do. Do you think I would have let you slide into the side of a truck?!? Huh? Do you? No, of course I wouldn’t have… because I love you more than the stupid car does.

Me: That was an accident. It wasn’t all Pilot’s fault.

Bike: So whose seat do you like more?

Me: Trek…

Bike: No! I want to know! And I’ll know if you’re lying to me… whose seat is better?

Me: Well, Pilot does have heated seats…

Bike: I knew it, you jerk!

Me: Trek, don’t you think you’re being a little bit dramatic?

Bike: You know what… whatever. I don’t care. You’ve changed, Suz. And I’m going to be honest, your butt has gotten A LOT bigger since you started ignoring me and hanging out with the stupid car.

Me: Okay, you know what, Trek, you’re just being mean now…

Bike: The truth hurts, doesn’t it?

Me: Whatever. We’ll finish this later when you can be more mature about things. Have a good day…

I heard him screaming something to me as I pulled out of the garage in the car. As the garage door went down, he cried. I felt bad about the whole stinkin’ situation.

I can’t wait for spring, when Trek and I can be good again.

Special Note: This post has now been entered into Scribbit’s Write-Away Contest!

My mother moved yesterday. She and her husband, Jeff, and my 8 year old sister, Paige, and my Grandma, and my 20 year old brother, Paul, all moved out of their condo and into a massive and beautiful house. My brother will finally have his own bathroom, my Grandma will finally have her own mini apartment complete with her own kitchen space, and Paige will have more room for her extensive Barbie collection. I think she actually has a “Barbie Room” now. The move is a good thing for everyone living in that household.

So at 9 am yesterday morning, I reported—like the good, dutiful, eldest child should—to my mom’s condo to help pack and make 80 trips back and forth between the condo and the new house. Now, this story needs some set-up. Some MAJOR set-up: My mother has issues with separation anxiety with every piece of crap she has ever come in contact with. And I am only being mildly exaggeratory. My mother is one of the biggest packrats ever. Ever. We’re talking, like, could-be-on-Oprah-and-millions-would-gasp-and-laugh levels of packrat-ed-ness. She will not throw anything away because at some point, in the next century, she or someone she knows could possibly need it. We are talking everything from extra roofing shingles to broken, rusty bicycles, to plastic baked potato containers from Wendy’s. Her double car garage? Filled to the ceiling with stuff. Her basement storage room? Filled. Her pull-behind trailer? Filled. Every corner and space of her condo was filled with stuff.

–In my mother’s defense, I believe that it is hereditary. I have a packrat gene that, if not kept in tight check, threatens to overwhelm me. I have the urge to keep every issue of Reader’s Digest because what if 8 months from now I want to refer back to that one article about how Angelina Jolie is saving the world one child at a time? And for the longest time I had some shirts from junior high school that followed me from one move to another, eventually coming to Utah all the way from Maryland… so how could I part with those? But eventually I get to a point where I feel overwhelmed by the stuff and I must purge. I get a freakin trash bag and I throw out everything, including stuff that maybe I really shouldn’t throw out, like the current power bill. But after I get rid of all of the stuff that I thought there was no way I could live without, guess what… I’m still living. And I’m feeling pretty good. I can breathe. My mom has never actually gotten to the purge part… ever.—

To make the move even more challenging, my mom had Lasik eye surgery the day before. So she was walking around with an eye patch and those goofy roll-up sunglasses they give you when your eyes are dilated, plus another pair of regular sun glasses. Because she was actually supposed to keep her eyes dilated for the next several days. Since her eyes were dilated, she couldn’t have any lights on. So there we were, sitting in the condo, trying to pack with the lights turned out and the curtains drawn. It was dark, people. I’m pretty sure I packed some crystal stemware with some shoes. But whatever.

Being that my mom couldn’t see anything, and I could barely see anything, I decided it would be a great time to casually toss some stuff. And don’t you know it, when I threw out a cabinet full of Wendy’s and Fazoli’s take out boxes, suddenly her eyes went 20/20. That isn’t trash! I claimed I couldn’t see anything in the dark…

At one point during the day, my mom’s husband, Jeff, and Jeff’s dad were sitting in the kitchen with me. I was packing the junk drawer (which, actually, was a “trash drawer”) and they were taking a break from the heat outside. I said to Jeff, “You know, it occurred to me—and I hope this isn’t a morbid thought—but when you and mom die, I get to go through all of this crap since I’m the oldest.” Jeff chuckled, because he knows he is married to a packrat, and it irritates him but he just kind of lets mom be mom. And Jeff said, “Yeah, you are actually the executor of our estate.” And I looked at the broken nightlight and the Better Crocker points from 1955 that I was holding and I laughed out loud at the word “estate”. And then Jeff’s dad piped in and said gruffly, “Yeah, and you have to act grateful about it.”

But I’m thinking that unless my mom actually ever goes through a “purge” period, or else sorts through her tons of treasures and tells me which lucky kid she wants her drawer of plastic McDonald’s bibs bequeathed to… I’m taking a backhoe through her house and dragging it all to the dump. Because that’s one “Estate Sale” that I’d end up taking a loss on.