Woke Up With a Rainbow in my Bra

Normally when I go to bed, I take off my bra. Really, as all women know it's just more comfortable that way. But last night due to the sinus cold I'm struggling with, I simply went to bed. Clothes and all.

This morning when I was getting undressed from yesterday's clothes a piece of paper came flying out and landed in my bathroom sink. "What the...?" I thought to myself and then remembered, "oh yeah! My piece of rainbow!"

Here's the story...

In acting class we got to draw and write with crayons. We shared with our partner and then passed them around the room. Afterwards we honored the class by sharing the crayon creations. Kate, in her honoring, ripped little pieces of the drawing of a rainbow from the whole and gave us each a piece. In my total absence of pockets I put it in my bra. As I placed it here above my heart I thought of my Mom who was that day having a pace maker put in. My rainbow was resting in the spot where her pace maker would be. It brought me some comfort and I thought of her and waited all day to hear from my family as to how her surgery had gone.

My sister, Chris, called me at 3:30 to let me know that Mom's surgery had gone well but that they weren't going to let her go home until the next day. I said something to Chris and she said something out loud and I hear Mom in the background say, "oh, you guys!" I knew she was all right.

With that worry out of my mind, I forgot completely about the rainbow in my bra.

Help! I’m Lost!

Background first…

In 1995 I got a very serious sinus infection that put me in bed for a week. Subsequently I catch every sinus cold that goes around and have had three other sinus infections since then. As a result, I don’t hear as well as I should.

Going even further back…

I have four brothers and three sisters, so loading us all into the car was quite a task for my Mom. One day, when I was five, I got left behind in Tempo’s (a local drug store like Rite Aid). Mom loaded up the car with 87.5% of her children, called it good and drove away.

I remember a little old lady was holding my hand and patiently taking me up and down each aisle asking me, “Is she your mom?” and I cried, “Nooo!”

Mom realized I was missing not quite a block away when she was going down the list asking each of her children what they wanted at McDonald's. “Maaike, what do you want? … Maaike… Maaike?” She came back to Tempo’s and got me…and was so flustered that the trip to McDonald's got canceled much to the chagrin of my brothers and sisters.

Now, the story…

My friend Daniel talks quietly. And, as I mentioned before, I’m a wee bit lacking in the hearing department.

We were going to a concert on campus and I didn’t have my Vandal card. Which was fine because I can still get in. Well a girl at the door was shouting, “If you have your Vandal card go to the other entrance to get a wrist band.”

Now, I thought I heard Daniel say, “We’ll just go in here.” So, I entered, walked a few steps, turned around and Daniel had completely disappeared into thin air. I waited thinking that we had just gotten separated by a few steps. I waited. He was gone. I took a few more steps into the building and then panic struck. Where was my friend? I seriously was going to cry.

In my panic, I saw a familiar face, “Joe!” (Hilary’s boyfriend) I told him that I’d lost my friend and, truthfully, I was going to cry.

“Do you want me to hang out with you, until he comes back?”

“Yes, please.”

It wasn’t too long after that that I spotted Daniel coming from the other side.

“There he is!”

“The guy in the black hoodie?” asked Joe.

“Yes, that’s him. Thanks for hanging out with me.”

(A note here to Joe: Thanks you really were a help to me! A note to Hilary: Joe’s great, don’t let him go!)

When Daniel came up to me I got mad at him (I’ve known him for over a year and this is the first time I’ve gotten mad at him) it was panic induced anger, however, and I can’t really be blamed for not being able to hold it in.

“Where did you go?” I asked, angrily.

“I was talking to my professor.”

I don’t remember what I said because mostly I was in a five-year-old’s state of panic of being left behind in an unfamiliar place. Daniel explained that what he had said to me earlier was to the effect that I was to go in this door and he was going to go through the other door to get a wristband.

My panic slowly ebbed. The concert was great and I thoroughly enjoyed it. On the way out, though, I kept a hold of Daniel so that I wouldn’t be left behind again.

People don’t believe me when I say I’m shy. But put me in an unfamiliar place and surround me with strangers and you’ll see me start crying like a five-year-old left in Tempo’s!

Ed’s New Haircut

I’m a killer. I’ve killed before. I can’t say that I enjoy it…and the last four years have gone by without incident. But the plant that was residing happily inside of my Ed-the-Head pot is dead. I killed it. I think I over watered it. But it is dead.

Kylie gave me the plant on one of my birthdays. (I love my birthday! A week from today is my half-year birthday!) She called it my “good luck” plant because I’d need luck to keep it alive. It lived a good life. It was beautiful. And now it’s dead.

Well, since Ed-the-Head is often in charge of the apartment when I’m gone, I had to find a new plant for it. I went to the store. And wandered. Not so much an indoor plant selection as they’re making way for the gardeners and lawn-fixer-uppers. I was at a loss. I stepped out into the parking lot where fewer people could hear my stupid question. I dialed the phone and called my Mom.

“Mom, I know I’ve asked you this every summer, but does annual mean it comes up every year or that I have to plant it every year?”

With that question out of the way, and Mom giggling in my ear, I wandered into the plants. The walls were lined with choices. Some I knew. Most I did not. There was one I wanted to look at, but couldn’t go anywhere near it because there was a spider perched too near. Curse you, spider!

“Mom, there’s a spider in here.”

“It won’t hurt you.”

Silly Mom. She knows that spiders are out to get me.

“Mom what does it mean when it says ‘sun perennial’?”

“That means it needs a lot of sunshine. You want a shade one.”

Searching some more, avoiding the looks of those who despise us uninformed plant buyers and annoying cell-phone talkers…and of course the spiders and various random bugs that had taken up homes in their favorite plants. I picked up something that looked dainty and pretty.

“I found something called ‘Lamium.’ It looks like it has little purple flowers.”

“Well, since I can’t see it, it sounds good to me.”

Thanking my Mom for her patience and advice I proceeded to the cashier. I went home proudly with my new plant. Hooray! Ed-the-Head will be naked no more!

Then Daniel, (“Outstanding Junior” for his department in Horticulture) comes over, takes a look at my plant and says, “They use this mostly for ground cover.”

Well, I guess that means that Ed is destined to have a buzz cut … until I kill again!