Alison always does what librarians tell her to do
And I often do what La Brainy tells me to do:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the sentence in your journal with these instructions.
“Within our being, an instrument which the uniformity of habit has rendered mute, song is born of these divergences, these variations, the source of all music: the change of weather on certain days makes us pass at once from one note to another.”
–Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time Vol. V, The Captive and the Fugitive
We got lucky. With Proust, a sentence picked at random could easily be three pages long.
I’m a little bit grumpy right now. As I looked out my window this morning to admire the lovely spring day, I saw a little girl stick her grubby little kid hand into my garden and pluck my ONLY TULIP. I’m mad at the kid for robbing me of a tulip that I’ve been so looking forward to and that only bloomed yesterday. I’m mad at the kid’s mother for not stopping her, and for raising a flower thief. I’m a bit mad at myself for caring so much. And I must admit that as I walked away from the window I did make a little wish that the kid would get some kind of harmless rash from the flower. Damn kids.
Flower Plucker. I feel for you. I would never pluck a real flower from someone else’s garden. Once I decided to divest a neighbor’s lawn of its many, many dandelions, and the neighbor got very upset with me, so I learned my lesson. Don’t even touch the weeds.
Posted by: Michelle
Flower theft memories just came screaming back at me after reading your post. We had a little garden patch in our side yard when I was a kid. We never successfully grew anything in there. But every spring two or three tulips would pop up. I adore tulips. They are my favorite flower. I still vividly recall the year that my neighbor’s son stole our two tulips. This would have been around 1980. I’m still pissed about that.
Flash forward a few years. We built a house on Nantucket. I love tulips and convince my father to buy tons of bulbs. I spend an entire day planting them around our property (I was maybe 11). When spring came around and any bit of green grew up from the bulbs the rabbits would come and devour the stalks. I never got to see a single flower for all my work. Damn rabbits.
Posted by: Jessica
Flower Plucker. I feel for you. I would never pluck a real flower from someone else’s garden. Once I decided to divest a neighbor’s lawn of its many, many dandelions, and the neighbor got very upset with me, so I learned my lesson. Don’t even touch the weeds.
Posted by: Michelle
Flower theft memories just came screaming back at me after reading your post. We had a little garden patch in our side yard when I was a kid. We never successfully grew anything in there. But every spring two or three tulips would pop up. I adore tulips. They are my favorite flower. I still vividly recall the year that my neighbor’s son stole our two tulips. This would have been around 1980. I’m still pissed about that.
Flash forward a few years. We built a house on Nantucket. I love tulips and convince my father to buy tons of bulbs. I spend an entire day planting them around our property (I was maybe 11). When spring came around and any bit of green grew up from the bulbs the rabbits would come and devour the stalks. I never got to see a single flower for all my work. Damn rabbits.
Posted by: Jessica
Motherpluckin’ kids. In my idea of karma, you’ll get seventeen more flowers for that one, and the kid’s mother’s garbage disposal will stop up every Dutch national holiday.
Posted by: Rachael
Wow. You’re a better person than I am. I’d hope that the rash itches.
Posted by: stephanie
OK, Rachael’s comment is clearly the funniest thing I’ve read in DAYS AND DAYS!
Posted by: claudia
I’m a mother, and I concur: damn kids! I watched a kid happily plucking flowers while his mother “pretended” not to notice. My girl got a lecture on why that isn’t nice
Posted by: Iris
About three years ago at my house it was a pair of teenage girls who plucked about 10 of my tulips from my front “yard” (i.e., patch of dirt in front of my house in Cambridge (our fair city), MA). I dashed out of my house, caught them as they walked down the street, and asked how dare they take flowers that didn’t belong to them. They gave back all but one, claiming it was from someone else’s yard (yeah, that makes it better). I kept them in a vase until they wilted, but it just made me bitter everyday. (And, apparently, many days since then!)
Posted by: Ingrid
Hello everyone, I have a flower story also. Last september I planted alot of bulbs I got for my birthday on my lot (which I plan to build a house this year or next) It was pretty hard work because there wasn’t any flower beds on the land.
While I was away on the weekend, a family in the neighbourhood cut off all my tulips and trillums off my lot. They stole the bulbs and stuck some of the cut flowers in the ground where they dug up the bulbs. Fortunately someone from down the street saw someone “planting flowers” there and I went over to their house. A bag of potting mix was beside their door and some of my flowers were sitting in a vase on their table. I can’t believe the nerve of some people!
Posted by: Victoria
Motherpluckin’ kids. In my idea of karma, you’ll get seventeen more flowers for that one, and the kid’s mother’s garbage disposal will stop up every Dutch national holiday.
Posted by: Rachael
Wow. You’re a better person than I am. I’d hope that the rash itches.
Posted by: stephanie
OK, Rachael’s comment is clearly the funniest thing I’ve read in DAYS AND DAYS!
Posted by: claudia
I’m a mother, and I concur: damn kids! I watched a kid happily plucking flowers while his mother “pretended” not to notice. My girl got a lecture on why that isn’t nice
Posted by: Iris
About three years ago at my house it was a pair of teenage girls who plucked about 10 of my tulips from my front “yard” (i.e., patch of dirt in front of my house in Cambridge (our fair city), MA). I dashed out of my house, caught them as they walked down the street, and asked how dare they take flowers that didn’t belong to them. They gave back all but one, claiming it was from someone else’s yard (yeah, that makes it better). I kept them in a vase until they wilted, but it just made me bitter everyday. (And, apparently, many days since then!)
Posted by: Ingrid
Hello everyone, I have a flower story also. Last september I planted alot of bulbs I got for my birthday on my lot (which I plan to build a house this year or next) It was pretty hard work because there wasn’t any flower beds on the land.
While I was away on the weekend, a family in the neighbourhood cut off all my tulips and trillums off my lot. They stole the bulbs and stuck some of the cut flowers in the ground where they dug up the bulbs. Fortunately someone from down the street saw someone “planting flowers” there and I went over to their house. A bag of potting mix was beside their door and some of my flowers were sitting in a vase on their table. I can’t believe the nerve of some people!
Posted by: Victoria