I Have Always Depended on the Kindness of Strangers

Remember that famous line in the movie (or play) A Streetcar Named Desire, when Blanche DuBouis said, in that slow, deep, Southern drawl,

“Whoever you are, I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers.”

I can totally relate to that, but my quote has a bit of a twist, and a hard-A Midwestern accent, “Whoever you are, I’ve always depended on the creativity of strangers.” My mom always used to say, “You are so creative!” Actually, I’m not. I’m so imitative. I can draw, but not with my own brain. I copy the art of others quite well. But that’s not all I copy. My friend and I were talking about how she put together a birthday party for her son about 12 years ago. The theme was SpiderMan and she put little Spiderman cutouts on toothpicks and lovingly inserted them in each party-goer’s cupcake. She had the kids wear Spiderman outfits and all of the decorations had the same theme. When I reminded her of this and admitted that I had been impressed and a little bit jealous, she said that she had to do it all herself because up here we did’t have party supply stores and we definitely didn’t have Pinterest! You can bet your banana that the next party I threw had some sort of superhero theme and decorations! These days creativity and style have made a huge leap forward in my life with the advent of Pinterest. My son’s graduation party decorations and food ideas were chosen thanks to a long evening on Pinterest, pinning and re-pinning. Deciding and changing my mind depended on the next “graduation party food ideas” pin I came across. Don’t have something to crochet? Type “crochet patterns” in the search line and Wa-La! Hundreds of ideas ready to go! I don’t even have to labor over outfits anymore. If I don’t know what to wear, I just go to my “Ideas for Improving my Wardobe” board and pick out something, then run upstairs and get dressed…once. We are getting our family pictures taken so I have a board “Family Photo” and made sure the photographer checked it out so that we can both be sure our family pictures reflect the current trends and don’t remind people of the Olan Mills Photography Studio wagon wheel and background scene hanging behind us.

In fact, when I was trying to figure out what to wear for the family pictures, I went right back to Pinterest and looked at what the other moms were wearing so I could be sure I have on just the right cardigan with boots combo to reflect my fashion-forward lifestyle. Yup, the depths of my creativity and style are endless and I am not ashamed. Thank you kind stranger.

What is Adulthood Really About?

I am a person who, much to the annoyance of my children, loves Facebook and Pinterest. You are probably familiar with Facebook, but if you aren't familiar with Pinterest, you should be. One popular part of both sites is the abundance of clever, inspirational, offensive, ridiculous, and downright hilarious quotes that get posted and reposted regularly. One of my favorite ridiculous quotes is "repost if you love your grandma. If you don't then you hate her." The truly ridiculous part of that is the fact that it actually gets reposted! I am guilty of reposting all kinds of (hopefully not offensive) quotes such as, "I don't know Karate, but I do know 'crazy' and I'm not afraid to use it."
There are literally hundreds that have made me laugh, cringe, or go "hmmm." A while back my niece reposted one that said "Adulthood is mostly about being tired and wishing you hadn't made plans." When I read that I felt like Peppermint Patty when she knocked Schroeder away from his piano when she yelled "That's it!" At this stage in my life I have found myself not only tired all the time but napping on a regular basis. They usually aren't planned naps either. They they can occur at any time that I am lying on the couch, which is usually after dinner. Several years back I even made a 'no more than one night of plans per week' rule. More than one night a week of activity just makes me more tired. I love going out with Tom or friends. I really love watching the kids performances or athletics. When I do make plans,I get really excited about whatever it is I'm doing but when the time comes I think "Why did I agree to this? I'm just so dang tired!" Most of the time I convince myself that I need to get out of the house and have some fun with friends or family. Rarely do I cancel.  I do however, find myself in full on yawning around 8:30 PM. I sometimes find myself with an inner-conflict. I love to socialize and hate feeling like I'm missing "the fun" but when I get invited to join the fun I excitedly accept then, like the quote says, wish I hadn't made plans. I guess if that is what adulthood mostly is, then I've nailed it. That and another catchy quote "Now that I've wasted an hour on Facebook, Ill just pop over to Pinterest and make an evening of it."