Awesome, Dude!

In my family, we have a thing for ladybugs.

Any time we see an unusual amount of them, or if we see one at an unusual time of year it’s cause for us to invoke “THE EMERGENCY LADYBUG RESPONSE SYSTEM”. Calls are made…emails are sent…stories are told…and then retold. My family will turn it over, under, inside and out. It’s just what we do.

For us, ladybugs are our connection to Mom.

Every now and then, I’ll see one that’ll set me off. Today was one of those days:

It doesn’t look real, right? Like it’s made of metal. It’s only the third one I’ve ever seen like this, but interestingly it’s twice been on my “Petit-MG” (Morning Glory), which is my favorite flowering potted plant which sits on my porch..crawling up my trellis. It’s the first thing you see upon leaving the house and greets you right before you come inside. Here’s last year’s “Petit”:

Not only do I love the flowers (this year, I’ve got blue, purple and white mixed together, I hope) but I adore the heart-shaped leaves as well….what’s not to love? And the fact that you almost don’t notice that icky wrought-iron trellis when it’s in bloom is just the icing on the cake. (Of course, now I’ve pointed out the icky black wrought-iron….sigh….)

And speaking of things I love to see, I am once again getting visitors to my cheap little plastic hummingbird feeder. It seems that hummingbirds are not all that finicky about the receptacle their sugar-water comes from as long as it’s THERE. I thought this was information worth passing on, as people tend to think you need a lot of equipment to attract these elusive little guys:

See him? I’d swear I could almost hear him say “Hey, Lady! Do ya mind?? No flash photography while I’m tryin’ to eat, here! Isn’t it enough that I’m only the size of something in between a bug and a bird…you’ve gotta stand there and watch me eat?!”…(for he’s a New York hummingbird and would therefore have to speak like one…) You can’t even make out his little beating-like-there’s-no-tomorrow-little-wings…but considering this shot was taken through a window AND a screen, I’m just happy you can see him at all. (He may not agree with this.) I’m not going to tell you how long I had to stand in the sunroom to get this photo….just consider yourself very, very special….and I can’t promise I’ll ever do it again. (This is about as close as Mother Nature and I will ever get.)

I’m also trying to be extremely sensitive to these “oddball moments” in life…the ones that could just as easily zoom straight over my head and never even get noticed…except, they’re just so…odd. And strange. And did I mention co-incidental??

This morning, my friend Sue (who lives in Canada) and I both awoke to some serious Charlie-horse’s…and we’re both still sore from them. A fluke of nature? Maybe. But you can imagine the reactions each of us had when we saw each other’s emails as we whined about how sore our calves were.

My friend Margarete and I took a quiz recently of seven questions about yourself…basic run-of-the-mill questions about favorite places, foods, loves, etc…with 3 responses for each question…for a total of (wait…let me get my calculator)…21 answers. Sent them off to each other at the exact same instant…and we had seven out of 21 answers exactly the same. Not surprising if you’ve known each other for years, right?

What if you haven’t met yet?? Only spoken briefly on the phone and exchanged a few (albeit hilarious) emails? (This is before we’d ever officially MET in person.) Is this merely “chance”, or something…more? I don’t usually consider someone a “friend” after a short period of time but I could almost hear an audible “click” when we locked eyes at that first meeting. We haven’t stopped talking (or laughing) since. Her husband is understandably perplexed. (For Margarete & Marc...the ever-perfect couple: "It's sharing little winks together...drinks together...kinks together...that make marriage a joy.The bargains that you shop together, cigarettes you stop together, clothing that you swap together, that make perfect relationships. Uh-huh...Mmm-hm...", Kathryn sings...every bit the Broadway star...)

And Jackie? She just freaks me out. She’ll ring me up just as I’m writing to her (or about her) after several days of us not connecting and broach the very subject I’m typing about…I can’t tell you how many emails I’ve abandoned due to her uncanny timing.

Tonia is an enigma. She’s the typical eyes-in-the-back-of-her-head, female-Clinton Kelly, so she’s always keeping me on my toes. And since she sees me when I’m sleeping, I don’t even bother to question her extra-sensory abilities….they simply are.

Whether Mom is behind any or all of these “cosmic co-incidences”, we may never know. I get the sense though that somehow…she’s getting a kick out of them…and she’s smiling…and for now, that’s enough.