When I was in elementary school, my best friend was a girl from Taiwan. She taught me a lot of interesting things, including the idea that if I carried the fortunes from fortune cookies around with me all day, they would come true.
Interpreted through hindsight enhanced by squinting, some of them have—and the advice is often worth contemplating.
So I still keep fortunes, except instead of carrying them in my pockets, where they fuse into small lumps of lint, or my purse, where they settle and are never seen again, I stick ’em in my bra—it’s convenient, I don’t lose ’em that way, Lord knows, there’s room.*
A small pile of my favorites has accumulated on top of my bureau, and my family, often amused by my habits, suggested I share them in a Random Thursday.
If I haven’t shared too much already . . .
But then again, Every Good Friend was Once a Stranger.
Under the circumstances, this isn’t as reassuring as it might be . . .
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The Longest Intro to a Video Ever, or, The Significance of the Potato
About a week ago, my friend Cha Cha asked me to write up a list of prompts for a photography challenge she wanted to do in April.
I was slightly bewildered by this, because she knows me, but I consulted with the kids and we came up with thirty just in time.** She’s been doing one a day, in no particular order, and yesterday, she IM’d me to tell me she’d done “An eye”and she’d post it on Facebook later.
Being me, I started guessing.
Me: Whose?
Cha Cha: Don’t know his name. I can tell you that he’s tall and scary looking.
Me: A real human being?
Cha Cha: No
Me: An image of something?
Cha Cha: No
Me: A fake human being?
Cha Cha: No
Me: You’ve found Bigfoot.
Cha Cha: Ha! No
Me: Nessie?
Cha Cha: No
Me: A really large potato?
Cha Cha: No…I didn’t even think of that.
Of course not. Because if other people entertained thoughts of menacing tubers, what would I bring to relationships?
She posted the photo that evening. It’s marvelous and unexpected, and clearly not a potato:**
I mentioned this, which prompted another exchange:
Cha Cha: I did say he was tall and scary looking. Unless you’re eating VASTLY different tubers than I am, that should have ruled out spuds. 🙂
Me: Potatoes can get mean when they’re riled . . .
She immediately dug up (see what I did there?) a video of the brilliant Cheryl Wheeler singing her “Potato Song” so that I would have something to hum for the rest of my life.
And since I hate to think that any of my other friends might have insufficient hummables, I’m sharing.
I can’t embed the one she showed me, but I found this version, which uses Ms Wheeler’s voice:
Sing along with me, now—you’re going to anyway . . .
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” Pursue Your Wishes Aggressively”
I’m taking this one as a sign that I can stay up all hours swilling diet Pepsi and listening to Snow Patrol and There for Tomorrow if it gets my deadlines done.
What else could it mean?
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How did they know?
Someone finally put my state of mind to music, y’all:
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“Luck has chosen you today”
This one is nicely non-specific. What kind of luck?
Let’s review the day in question:
I didn’t have time for breakfast that morning and forgot to pack a lunch.
But I found a fortune cookie in my bag.
Fortune cookies don’t last long, calorically.
But, when I was trying to drive to lunch before my blood sugar tanked, I did notice that the driver next to me didn’t give a damn that she was in a turn only lane before she merged her car into mine.
I wouldnt’ have been driving if I hadn’t skipped breakfast and forgotten about lunch.
But I did get to blog about it . . .
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Just close your eyes.
I stole this from Sarah P, and I’m not sure if the video is this blank on her side of the ocean. But the song doesn’t need visuals—it works better if you make your own:
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“Ask not what your fortune cookie can do for you,
but what you can do for your fortune cookie.”
I blogged about you . . . isn’t that enough?
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*I kept a purple permanent marker in there all day once—I’d been picking up the kids’ room that morning, found it where it shouldn’t have been, and didn’t want to lose track of it. Then I forgot until my husband needed to label something and I said, “Oh, wait, use this!” fished around, and handed it over. I cherish the look on his face to this day.
**My personal favorite: “Fun with perspective and a yo-yo.”
***It also doesn’t look as good as hers does—it’s a bit washed out here.
Earful of Cider 