There is no talk of blueberries in my family – well, at least not without mentioning the blueberry incident. Eyes twinkle, hands rub together gleefully, posture adjusted to lean in a moment to hear the tale retold.
Again.
And Again.
Its not much of a story, yet every time I lower my eyes, squirm a bit, and blush appropriately. But in truth, I have grown accustomed to this tale. I’d probably miss it if they failed to tell the story.
We grew up on a farm. We had a goat.
One morning when I was three or four, I was outside playing when I burst back into the house exclaiming,”Mommy, I need a bucket!”
“Well, ok,” she says, “But why do you need a bucket?”
“Theres blueberries all over the yard!”
Never has any child been quite so ecstatic over goat turds.
Fast forward fourteen years to my high school graduation. Right before the actual graduation ceremony there was a religious ceremony, a kind of blessing for the graduates, and I was one of the speakers.
I stood beside Pastor Lee as he was introducing me to the standing room only crowd. As he spoke I started to understand that he was leading up to a story, a story he got from my mom, a story that, as he said, “Illustrates [my] exuberance and lust for life,” a story about mistaking goat turds for blueberries.
Then it was my turn to speak…
Its interesting to me how the laughter over the tale, the pre-emptive giggles, surpass the actual humor in the story. Yet still it has value as one of the stories that hold us together, make us a family. Our family story a weave of a multitude of little stories with a few big stories to give shape and context to the rest.
What about you? What little and big stories have been woven into the culture of your family? What story embarrasses you every time you hear it, but if they didn’t tell it, you’d miss it?
Go to your blogs, run, skedaddle. Write your story then leave a link here in the comments so that we can all go read your story and laugh with/at you.
I spent the day at the University of Washington’s Burke Museum. I had totally forgotten that around Seattle, the first Thursday of every month means free admission to museums. (Note to self, students get in free, you can go on a less crowded day.)
My favorite part of the museum was most definitely the dinosaur and mastadon fossils. This is only the second time in my life I have seen dinosaur fossils. (The first time was a way cool experience. Pacific Science Center had a wine and cheese tasting along with a live jazz band right in the middle of the dinosaur exhibit that was on loan from the far reaches of the planet. They called it the Dino Wino Event)
Today’s exhibit would have benefited from a glass of wine. But I was also amused by watching all the mommys with their toddlers. Mommys trying to expose their little ones to history and culture, little ones much more interested in trying to pull the tile up off the floor. Too cute.
There were also some interesting collections of photography and artifacts from American Indian, Samoan, Chinese, and other cultures that are represented here in the Pacific Northwest.
No photography was allowed inside, so I went clicky-click on the totem poles outside.
Ok, well this is just a little bit ridiculous. I’ve really got to clean up my flickr pool. I moved to this site because of the tags and sets and categories and now that I’ve got 1944 images uploaded, the vast majority are untagged, unsetted (I just made that word up) and uncategorized. I’m a lazy girl, which is a wonderful way to be when you want to lie in bed and watch tv while eating chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. Not so much when you are looking for one specific picture.
On a side note, anyone have any idea what kind of flower this is? I don’t think I’ve seen this one before.
Now I’m going to curl up with a bowl of ice cream and watch Letterman and TV’s Craig Ferguson.
Barack Obama has clinched Democratic Candidate for President.
For the first time in my life, I will be able to vote for the presidential candidate of my choosing rather than against the presidential candidate that I think will do more damage.
“But what you don’t deserve is another election that’s governed by fear, and innuendo, and division. What you won’t hear from this campaign – or this party – is the kind of politics that uses religion as a wedge and patriotism as a bludgeon.”
I’ve been out of sorts all day. I’m not quite sure why.
On any other day, I’m annoyed to no end by other people telling me they are bored. I’ve got no patience for that; I usually have half a dozen things I didn’t get done because I ran out of time.
But today… Today I was bored all day long. I could not get my brain to engage in anything. I just feel like pouting.
So, instead of beating my head against the keyboard trying to write something decent, I went for a walk in the rain. Now I’m going to sip mexican hot chocolate and slip into bed. There’s nothing so important it can’t wait till tomorrow.
How do you handle days when you can’t seem to engage?
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