Connection

Recently I was in physical therapy three times a week for three months and needed something to do while my legs were packed in ice at the end of each session. I started taking my iPad so I could work puzzles, read books, or listen to podcasts. I’d return home exhausted and sore, ooze my way out of the car, and hear “prink!” Now it’s become a habit to have my iPad with me, and whether I’ve been to the doctor, grocery shopping, or running errands, as I get out of the car I hear “prink!”, and I smile.

You see, my iPad makes that sound when it connects to a Wi-Fi network. It makes the same sound no matter what network it connects to, but if I connect to the Wi-Fi at the doctor’s office, car dealership, or wherever, it’s not the same. In any of those places I have to decide to connect, go to the settings menu, choose the right network, click, be taken to a webpage requesting I click on something to prove I’m not a robot, maybe enter a password, and then I’m connected. But home? It knows me. My iPad and my house know each other. The connection is there, waiting. I don’t need websites, decisions, or permission. I don’t even need to actually be inside. As I step out of the car, the connection reaches out and says “Hey! I know you!” and my device says, “Hey! I know you, too!” And they connect. Isn’t that what home is all about?

That “prink!” only makes me smile when it connects to the Wi-Fi in my house. It’s the sound that says “I’m home”: the sound that says the work of interacting with the world is done. No decision to make. No permission to seek. Just instant connection. Deep breath. I’m home.

The Funeral

I generally try to mix things up on  here a bit, not getting too into one subject or another. However, I felt I needed to share just one more random photo with you. For better or worse, here it is:

And just what is that, you ask? If you look closely you’ll see that it is my hair dryer. In the waste paper basket. And just what is my hair dryer doing in the waste paper basket, you ask? Well, it seemed like the best place for it after I dropped it in the toilet. Yes, in. Yes, the toilet. As in, electrical appliance, still actually plugged into the wall, into the water. I feel smart…

And in case anyone was wondering, the lovely background for this photo is the ugly floor of Ugly Bathroom #2, which you can see here.

(And before you ask, yes, I did let the hair dryer dry out for a day before I tried it. Dead as a doornail.)

Beattie Randomocity

I’ve decided I need to quit trying to be profound and just write something. Anything. There’s no good reason not too, right? Since I can’t think of anything specific, I decided to share random things I’ve seen or noticed just hanging around my life lately. It seems like random is like, totaly everywhere, you know? So here we go:

Here is the first piece of random. These are mystery implements I found yesterday. I was searching through my sewing supplies looking for the instruction manual for the serger. I lifted a handful of fabric scraps and found this:

They look brand new, and there’s a bunch of them, so you’d think they’d be important to something around here…  Anybody have an idea what these could be?

Next there is the Tale of the Magic Coat. You may remember our fun at the SnowShow back in December (read about it here), and the fun we had afterwards finding random snow falling from his clothing. Well, now I find out some of the fun may not of  had as much to do with the show as it did with a magical coat. It occurred to me the other day that each time we had random snow Brian was wearing the same brown suede coat. Well, like, duh! It’s the coat he wore at the show, so that’s where the snow falls out, right? Well, a couple weeks ago he was driving, reached up to rub his neck, and this fell out of the sleeve:

More than a month after seeing the show!!! To get the depth of how amazing this is, you need to realize he wears this coat almost every day. For over a month. And still…

I decided the coat was magic after one night when Brian pulled his glasses out of the coat pocket and discovered one of the lenses had fallen out. The screw was also missing. After I tried to repair the glasses with an eyeglass repair kit I had in my purse and found that the screws I had were all too big, Brian reached back into the pocket. He felt around a second or two, and pulled out the world’s tiniest brass screw. Honestly, I could hardly see it. Yet, in the pocket of the Magic Coat, it was easily found. Has to be a Magic Coat…

One more piece of random. This is a pile of Tacky, Old, and Bad that we’re removing from our house. Notice especially the giant 1970’s burgundy colored pom-pom fringe on the curtains:

These are assorted curtains left by the old homeowners. This is not the first, and I’m sure not the last, pile of Tacky, Old, and Bad we’re be removing. (Some of it has even been stuff we moved with us!)

There’s a lot more random that’s been hanging around, but I don’t think I should bore you with it all. I’d hate to scare away all my readers! If you’d like more, you can check out my flickr page. This set of photos includes pictures of Ugly Bathroom #1, Ugly Bathroom #2 (in which you can see the Ugly Mirror and Light Fixture that was in both bathrooms when we moved in), my newly hung livingroom curtains, and the amazing view out my windshield when I had to go to the store yesterday. You can find it here. I hope for your sake you’re not really so bored that you find this interesting…

…And a Quirky New Year to You!!!

After four days of being immersed in Kingdom  thoughts and teachings through the webstreaming of the mind-blowing event that is “onething 08” (from IHOP-KC), yesterday was a bit of a whiplash experience. We had to run a couple errands early in the day, but then retreated home, to become immersed in a mind-blowing experience of a different type: the Mummers Parade.

After watching the final half of the parade on TV, it became clear why this annual Philly event takes place on New Year’s Day. I think it takes a night of being up way too late and drinking way too much for this event to make any sort of sense at all. I mean, under what other circumstances would thousands of people brave sub-freezing temperatures and huge crowds to watch befeathered, sequin bedazzled men from space rocking out to a medly of space tunes, including everything from “2001 Space Oddessy”, “Star Trek” and “Close Encounters” to “Star Wars”. Or what about my personal favorite? Several dozen men dressed as ancient Egyptians, both living and mummified, covered in glittery garb and sporting enough feathers to make a Vegas showgirl jealous, playing banjos and saxophones, dancing to “Mr. Sandman”, right there in front of City Hall.

Think I’m kidding? Take a look at this:

Too Much Fun

Yes, it may in fact be possible to have too much fun. I never would have thought so before last Sunday, but now I’m convinced it just might be. We took a walking tour of a neighborhood in Brooklyn, shopped at my favorite camera store in the entire world, and topped the day off with a Broadway show. To make the whole day even better, the show wasn’t just a run-of-the-mill Broadway show. We saw “Slava’s SnowShow”, an extravaganza of beauty, imagination, and just plain fun.

(I had never heard of Slava before, but he is a famous clown from Russia, known around the world. You would think that as a former clown I would have known, but no… Anyway…)

It’s the kind of show that’s really hard to explain, since it lacks all the “norms” of clown acts, like balloon animals, cheesy magic tricks, and tiny cars. Instead, it goes from random silliness, to poignant introspection, to surrealism, to outright, fully abandoned fun.

My Super Power

For a number of years Adam and I have had bouts of a game we get into. I don’t remember for sure where it started, or how, or even when. All I know for sure is that, up until now, I have stunk at it! The game is to decide if you were a superhero, what would your super name be, and what would your super power be. I’ve never come up with anything good for myself, ever. He, on the other hand, seems to be perfectly gifted at this game. Well, his reign as king of this game is finally at an end.

I discovered my super power while trying to write a simple email to someone I had not yet met. I went through my normal struggle to figure out what needed to be said, what didn’t need to be said, and what needed to not be said. After several paragraphs of introduction, I finally got to the reason I was writing. It was then that it hit me;if I were a super hero, my super power would be to take any short, simple story and turn it into a long, involved story in the blink of an eye. My super hero name? “Loquacious Girl”. Take that, Captain T-Shirt!

Fall is Here

Well, it’s that time of year again; time when days are shorter, weather is cooler (praise God!), and leaves turn. Leaves turn, and then they fall. And fall. And fall. Can you guess what I did this week? I’ll give you a photographic hint:

Another Reason I Love Kids

Friday night we joined the rest of our neighbors in handing out candy to all the little pirates and princesses that came knocking at our door. While I don’t really like Halloween, it’s always fun to see the neighborhood kids having so much fun. When the doorbell rang for the first time, Brian and I both went to the door. He opened it to a cluster of little kids, probably 6-8 in age and number.

As he held out the bowl, a buzz ran through the crowd. One by one the kids reached into the bowl to choose their favorite candybar, and we heard one say, “I got a chocolate bar! I got a chocolate bar!” Another child took off running across the lawn to where the parents were waiting in the street calling, “I got peanut butter cups! Look! I got peanut butter cups!” And I kid you not, from the midst of the group we heard a liitle voice say, “I got a rock…” I don’t know who that kid was, but I love him!

How I Know I Don’t Really Get the Sermon on the Mount

I try to live out the Sermon on the Mount. I really do! I try to put the needs of others above my own; to have grace with others and their failings and/or quirks. I have a long way to go, though. I proved this to myself just recently. I took part in a contest-type thing, where part of the process is to watch the scoring take place. Now, it’s normal to not necessarily agree with the decsions of the judges, but I went above and beyond. As I was participating, the blog entry I would write about the event was forming in my head. It didn’t take long to realize this was a blog entry that would never be posted, primarily because it wasn’t very kind in its tone or attitude. Below is a revised version of the offending post. I removed any unkind phrases or words, replacing them with my favorite word for bad attitude, “snark”. If you’re brave enough, read on…

Lessons from the Laundry Room

I wish there was a way to more adequately imply intonation to the written word. Looking at the title I just wrote, it looks like it should read like “Helpful Hints from Heloise”. In reality, it should read more like “It Came from Beyond”  (cue spooky music). You see, this weekend I painted my laundry room. During the two-day adventure, I learned many things, which I will now share with you, my faithful readers.

First, let me say I love my laundry room. This is my first actual, real, live laundry room. Every house we had before had laundry closets, which is not at all the same thing! The fact that the walls are textured like stucco and haven’t been painted in at least 30 years has dampened my enthusiasm for the room only slightly.