In a couple days it will be me and my wife’s anniversary. We try to give each other gifts each year that align with the traditional or modern anniversary gift list. Last year the item was china. I gave her these large asian noodle bowls made of china and she gave me a rose bush that had china in the name. It was a small rose bush that hadn’t bloomed yet and said in the instructions that it may not bloom the first year. Sure enough, the whole summer and fall it didn’t bloom. The plant did well – it looked healthy – just no blooms. It survived the winter with no problem and stirred to live in the spring. Then, just days from our anniversary, and almost one year since planting it – we have a bloom.
It was worth the wait, don’t you think?
Speaking of gifts, it was Mother’s Day yesterday. The kid and I had been working hard on the gifts for the Mom. It started with some carryover from our New Orleans trip. While there we checked out all the Slap Ya Mamma hot sauce choices found in the French Quarter. We brought home a bottle, but found that it tastes so good that it doesn’t last very long. So we got the Mom not only another bottle of the hot sauce, but also two different spice seasonings for cooking. And you have to admit, something called Slap Ya Mamma is a pretty great gift for Mother’s Day, right? Next, to continue the cooking theme we got her a gift certificate to the local cooking school to take a hands on, one night cooking class. She has been to them before and really likes going. She can pick the theme she wants to go to, cook in a professional kitchen with all the cool gadgets, and then get to eat what she makes. Finally, the kid picked out an awesome Wonder Woman gift bag to put everything in and decided she wanted to give her a pair of Wonder Woman earrings. We searched high and low and finally found the right ones. The Mom was overjoyed with all the gift goodness. She also found out that wearing Wonder Woman earrings attracts other super heroes – like the one that came to visit at Starbucks later in the day…
Speaking of earrings, the kid has been changing. All her speaking and deciding life she has been adamant about not wanting to get her ears pierced. Every time we brought it up we got a stern, no! She didn’t want to hear it. Pun intended. Then. Yesterday, she informs us that she wants to finally do it. And she’d like to get two piercings in each ear. And here are all the pictures of all the kinds of earrings she wants. Ahhh – the winds of change. We told her – let’s start with one in each ear and see what you think with those…
I mentioned in a previous post that I was reading the book Vision Quest. I found a few quotes that I really like:
“Sometimes this experience comes back to me in reverie and sometimes it comes back as a real dream. It’s changed a lot since the night of the picnic when I first dreamed it and when it got stuck maybe forever in my memory. I guess it’s become what I need it to be rather than what it really was. I don’t even remember exactly how the day went anymore.”
This had to do with a memory the main character had of an event when he was a kid. It had a big impact on him, but he is not sure if his memory is really what actually happened. He’s thought about it over his life and had dreams about it and the memory has morphed into something else other than probably what really happened. I thought this was a really interesting concept and know I have memories like this too. It makes me kind of sad but also fascinated about how reality is usually not even real. You can have real memories about adventures while reading books or playing video games, but those are not real adventures. They are just in your mind. But when you really do something it just ends up in your mind, too, so what’s the difference. Then, like the quote above, your mind can change the reality to what you remember it as – and now it’s barely different than something made up.
“And I thought that in a few months the greatest time of my life would be over and I’d have to go somewhere and become more responsible and make a new time the greatest of my life.”
Another cool quote – about perspective and growing up.
Speaking of books and quotes, I listened to a memoir a few months ago by Gene Wilder. There was this amazing quote in it that has really stuck with me. I think I got it right but I may be paraphrasing a little. Gene was talking about being at an event with someone he was working with – a director or someone – and this person was being asked questions by a crowd.
A young lady got up and asked:
What right do I have to enjoy my life when there is so many people starving and in pain in the world.
The man looked at her and said:
Oh dear child. You’ll find if you take care of the person on your left, and the person on your right, that you’ll have a full time job.
So take care of your full time job and enjoy the life you have – and don’t feel guilty if it’s pretty good.
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