Friday, June 10, 2011

Weirdness is a Virtue


Ready to sing? Okay! One, two, three—belt it out!

I love the mountains
I love the rolling hills
I love the somethin’
I love the daffodils

Seriously, look at this! How can you NOT sing?


So I have this great pond down the road from my house and I love to walk, jog, skip there (Okay, so maybe I would only skip at night when no-one could possibly see me. Wait—just kidding, a skunk might think I need perfuming in the dark hours.) Anywho, I even stop my car in the road most times on the way past to gawk at the way cool birds. 



Sooooo, the other day, this brilliant idea struck out of nowhere—why not load up a couple of kitchen chairs in the back of the Burb (Suburban—for non-abbreviators) and have a comfy seat tall enough to see down into the pond? Yeah, why not? So I spouted the idea to my kids.

You would-a thought I told them I planned to dance in the road wearing a satyr costume and a daffodil clenched in my teeth—a couple of my kids anyway, older ones, who are attuned to embarrassment possibilities. They told me it was weird!

Well, I rebelled, told them I didn’t care a hoot if it was weird, and did it. You see? Look at that photo up there—I’m totally doin’ it. (The son who took the photo of us waited in the Burb the whole time, hunched down, bravely stepping out into the danger of embarrassment for a minute to snap a couple of shots for me—I’m an avid picture taker and I made him do it.)



So I’m sitting there enjoying the marvelous everything, and okay, hello, there's a road right there. People are seriously going to see me being so weird sitting there in my Good-For-Seeing-Wildlife chairs.

Ha! Tricked ya, didn’t I?! You thought I got embarrassed – that I caught a whiff of paranoia that people would think I was weird. Nope, I loved it, every split-second of it!
The birds hanging out there are so lovable—Blue Heron, Canadian Geese, ducks, more varieties of birds than I can name, AND . . .




PELICANS! LOOK AT THE PELICANS! I CRAZY LOVE PELICANS!

I must talk about them all the time, because I was out with my daughter visiting someone, and after we left she said, “Mom, I’m pretty sure you talked about the pelicans the last time we came to visit. Actually, you mention how much you love that pond, the pelicans, etc., every time we visit. And you talk about it to other people too, every time you see them.”

What?! I don’t do that, do I? I rewound my brain to the last visit—Aaaahhhh! I do talk about the pond and the pelicans all the time! I laughed. She laughed. It’s all good.

So people, I have this sage advice for you—

         Be weird. Makes life enjoyable.

12 comments:

Chantele Sedgwick said...

Ha ha ha! You make me laugh. Pretty sure I'm as weird as they come! ;)

Donna K. Weaver said...

Love the pictures. And I love that you did it anyway!

Danica said...

Not caring about what others might think definitely makes life more fun. :)
I need to be more like that. And those pelicans are amazing!

Brenda Sills said...

@Chantele -Thanks! Hey, isn't it great that writers are so weird?! I love it! I don't have to be weird alone!

@Donna -I'm so happy I could dance that you love the pics! And thanks for being on my side - the side of weirdness, YEAH!

@Danica -Life is DEFINITELY more fun that way! It took me a lot of time to realize that and not worry about other people. And you rock for thinking the pelicans are amazing!

Andrea said...

LOL! We saw ya down there- My boys were wondering what your son was doing in the car- not at all wondering why you were out there with your chairs- ;) We love to watch for birds down there too.

Brenda Sills said...

@Andrea -Oh my word, that is so funny! And you know what? - Since you're such a good friend, I'll share my pond with you. :D

Katie Dodge said...

I want to come to the pond! And I love that you're weird--it's why we are such good friends! :D

Taffy said...

I thought what you did was totally normal! The embarrassing your kids part too :) I also want to see the pelicans. We have a canal and see ducks. Last year a momma fox and her babes camped out near the canal. That was cool!
Thanks for stopping over at my blog and your kind words!

Michelle L. Brown said...

Oh, wow. How gorgeous. And how funny you are! This is a fantastic blog! I will show this post to my kids whenever I embarrass them by doing something "weird!" Ha!

Brenda Sills said...

@Katie -Yes! Yes! You would love my pond! MY pond, I say. Hoorah that you love my weirdness! Hoorah that we're good friends!

@Taffy -I would LOVE to see the foxes! How marvelous! Thanks for coming to visit my blog and chatting!

@Michelle -What wonderful, kind words! You really made me laugh when you said you would show this post to your kids whenever you embarrass them by doing something weird! And your "Ha!" was genius!

Anonymous said...

Love this post! Loved your attitude, 'cause I'm also kinda of weird and it doesn't bother me at all :) I'll tell you a secret *whispers* sometimes I enjoy doing weird stuff even more when it embarrass my Hubby - like playing with sand in the beach just like any two-year old. The children I might have will have a great partner in me when it comes to crazy, I'm sure of it :)

Brenda Sills said...

@EEV -How wonderful you are! Thank you immensely for your much-loved comment! That is so funny what you said about enjoying embarrassing your husband! I love it! And you're SO right about the children you'll have - kids ADORE craziness and they love when you're part of their world. You'll be a FANTASTIC Mom! Thanks!!!