Spring?

A couple of weeks ago Sean, Julian and I were walking to the zoo here in nearby Prospect Park.  Along the road and across the street was a hill. On that hill I saw something strange and foreign to my eyes, some unidentifiable substance that had a purple'ish hue. I thought it might be trash or perhaps some kind of toxic material strewn about.  Bewildered, squinting my eyes in an attempt to make sense of what I was looking at, I asked Sean,

"What's that purple stuff over there?"

He followed my gaze and responded,  "That would be flowers."

"Wh--flowers? Fuhlllooowweerszzz??" my mouth struggling to form the word. "What is this alien tongue you speak??"

After the zoo, headed home, we walked on the other side and got a closer look.

And gosh darn, he was right! They WERE flowers! I dared not believe my eyes. It had been so long since I'd seen such a thing, the thought that it could actually be a living, growing thing meant to beautify the earth did not even enter my mind. Absurd! 

We had a good laugh at my completely sincere and earnest question at the beginning, and slowly slowly I am getting used to seeing more strange stuff poking up here and there.

Happy Things

There are just a few things I want to share with you right now. 3 hodgepodgy things that have made me happy lately in unique ways, and I feel really create something magical when combined. Not that i experienced them all at the same time but as a collection, they really shine.

1. Yesterday I was driving on a gloomy rainy gross day.  It wasn't rain, it was snow. But it wasn't snow, it was wetter than that.  What was it then? Snain.  It's just disgusting.  It's like you feel gross on the inside. Anyway, so I'm in the car at a red light and I watched this guy cross the street in the midst of a questionable umbrella experience that was my own delight. For at least 5 blissful seconds I watched him carry his umbrella like this:

 

What you are looking at is a man whose umbrella has collapsed yet he remains unawares.  He finally realized he was not, in fact, being kept dry, and looked up to investigate at least 3 times before he fully digested the situation, rectified it, and I was so, so pleased. I laughed all the way home.

2. Baby elephants make me happy. I just saw a picture of one in the Smithsonian magazine and I always knew I loved baby elephants but when I saw this picture I literally gasped and exclaimed, "I love baby elephants!"  And somehow, shouting it to the heavens, or my apartment, made it official, a declaration.  And I seal it further by putting it here. Examine:

WAAGH, brand new fuzzy baby elephant!

 BAH. Baby elephant playing with ducks!

I love them because they're adorable. I love them because they're identical to their parents. They are mini-adults.  Not like human babies who don't look at all like adults, which is a VERY good thing because then we'd all run screaming, far far away because they'd look like this:

AAAH! Look away!

And I don't know what it is, but when I see a mom and baby elephant, it's like Julian and I are looking in a mirror.  I see us.  When he was a baby-lad, baby animals all used to remind me of him, but now, though he's out of his babyhood, he is still a baby elephant to me.    

Here we are just out for a casual stroll in the savanna: 

3. Today I was in a bit of a sour mood. Baby elephant was grumpy, I was grumpy, and he and I were walking back to the train from the Brooklyn Bridge.  We were waiting to cross a street and while we waited, we were facing a girl who was also waiting to cross the street. This girl was alone and had her camera out and the hugest smile on her face.  I was like, ok, what are you so happy about, champ.  The light was about 3 hours long so we watched her a good long while, taking pictures and smiling at something in the distance. I finally realized she was seeing the bridge, maybe for the first time?  And she looked like this:

And I turned around to look at it too, and then I didn't feel so sad.

What are your happy things?

sean quote

completely out of the blue:

You and Fergie aren't so different.

???

Shire vs. Rivendell

Ok, as for the Rivendell/Shire debate, I've given this a lot of thought as I've been watching (and re-watching) The Hobbit this week and here is my final answer:

I am sticking with my original: The Shire.

Why? Because Rob was right. Do I really need to live like a troll among immortal supermodels?  And I kind of view Rivendell as this quiet, serene, relaxing spa retreat/getaway.  I'd like to visit for sure, but live there? It'll get weird after a while.

At the Shire, i get to eat good food, feel cozy. live simply and read and write letters on a grassy knoll under a huge tree all day. Maybe i'll learn to garden. Someone's bound to teach me. And what will i learn from the elves other than to constantly control my thoughts lest Galadriel's serenely and beautifully lurking around the corner. And hear [eventually boring, let's face it) stories from 1,000 years ago about this epic battle and that, etc etc, blah blah blah.

Maybe I'll just be like Bilbo and escape to Rivendell when I need some R&R, or an adventure. 

This vs. That

For some reason, lately I've been either a participant or an observer of random "versus" comparisons. Since it seems to be a weird theme, I thought i'd put them up here just for the hey of it.

First, I've been doing some reading and watching.  The reading is Hunger Games, round 3.  This is always such a bittersweet experience because the trilogy as a whole is not great. In fact, it goes downhill, in my opinion, with book 3 being barely tolerable if read more than once.  Which is just sad. A trilogy should be sure to give a satisfying end.  But oh well. Book one almost makes up for the whole thing.  So i'm reading about Katniss and her awesomeness and the ever-present hunger, and it's good stuff.

The thing i've been watching is Lord of the Rings.  I think that i'd classify this as a winter watch (as opposed to a read--see what i did there?) though I'd see it any time because, as we know, I'm a bit of a fan.

Anyway, as mentioned in previous posts, every once in a while, when we're feeling ourselves rusty, Sean and I will play LOTR Trivial Pursuit. We've agreed that the only way to play this is if we have one of the movies on at the same time.  It definitely maximizes the experience, and a super strange phenomenon occurs in that there seem to be an unusually high amount of questions that refer to things we are actually seeing in the movie at the moment. Or near to. It's super weird.  So Sean will give me a question and, recognizing the scene, I will answer, "Gosh, I know i know this. Let me thiiiink abouuuut it.. I'm sure it will come to me in like twooooo minuuuuutessss..."

Anyway, so we were watching one night when i busted out with,

"Legolas vs. Katniss."

Which was ridiculous, of course. Sean replied, "What? Legolas is a supernatural being."   Which i know. But it presents a funny image, like if they were in a contest.

Next:

Sean told me that Ian McKellan was on some late night talk show and the host said,

"Magneto vs. Gandalf."

Which again, is ridiculous.  As Sir Ian replied, "Well, Gandalf is a wizard."

And then came one that I still can't answer.  It's less of a versus and more a "would you rather"--which, by the way--whatever happened to those?? I have completely forgotten about them.  I should probably bring them back. And i will, with this next question:

Would you rather..

live in the shire? Or Rivendell.

WHAT! I know, it's so hard!   The shire is so peaceful and green and lush and cozy and the doors are round!

On the other hand, Rivendell is otherworldly and one giant magical treehouse. I can take a nap on my chaise lounge on the patio(?) Or just the room without walls? Do any of the rooms have walls? Will i always be exposed? Does it even matter? I don't know.  I can't decide. Right now I'm thinking Shire, but proportionate to my giant size. What do you think?  Because I'm just sure everyone thinks about these things as much as I do.

Bandages

The other day I paused at the shelf and pondered upon the box of band-aids.  I asked myself, what iiif.... and made an adjustment, and my day was just a little bit brighter.

 

Maybe this is grammatically wrong, but I don't care.

And I thought throwing up was bad

It's no secret that puking is the worst.  A few of weeks ago Julian had the pukes--like the for real kind-- for the first time in his life.  It was so sad.  I sat with him and watched him do the "puke bowl dance" where he'd rock back and forth on his knees, waiting for it.  Oh, the wait. So awful.  I held the bowl while he cried over it, in such pain and agony and I wept a little, not just because watching a child in pain is so sad, but because I know EXACTLY how he feels.  I revert to a 3-year-old version of myself when I have the pukes, and it makes me want to cry, and it's just the worst, the worst ever.

And then I was reading my Book of Useless Information and read the following tidbit about frogs:

It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up.  The frog throws up its stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of its mouth.  Then the frog uses its forearms to dig out all the stomach contents and then swallows the stomach back down.

Argggh!!  Manually puking?? Imagine having to a) man-handle your own organs, and b) actually get inside to the yuck and physically dig out whatever's bothering you.  How could ever stop throwing up if you had to do that? The thing itself is so repulsive. I just really can't imagine having to choke down my own stomach.  Blarggghh.

So let's just take a minute and appreciate the reflex of throwing up. And, probably, the reflex of so many things.