> CD #77: Anything can happen
I don’t know about you, but I spend a lot of my time in public looking at what people are wearing. These days, that involves checking out the other mothers’ outfits during the school run. Normally, we’re all in the same suburban mom uniform, meaning leggings or sweatpants on the bottom and a hoodie or light down jacket on top. It’s a sea of blacks and greys. In this milieu, it is quite uncommon and sort of exciting to see anyone who is actually dressed.
So you can imagine my delight yesterday afternoon when I saw a mom striding across the playground in what I’m pretty sure was a Gucci cape. It was a vision. I stared in wide-eyed wonder.
AND THEN A BUG FLEW STRAIGHT INTO MY RIGHT EYE.
Like, STRAIGHT INTO MY EYE, causing me to double over in blinding pain. Tears came gushing out of the eye as my son came running up to me, confused at this rare glimpse of his mother in total pain. I blinked and blinked, hoping the tears would flush it out, and then we walked home, both a little stunned.
At home, I flushed out the eye with water a zillion times and figured it was fine. But after an hour, it still looked and felt kind of irritated, so I put in a few gel eyedrops and blinked them around.
THEN AN ENTIRE INSECT LARGER THAN A GRAIN OF RICE SLIPPED OUT OF THE CORNER OF MY EYE.
It had DIED ON MY EYE—drowned in my tears?—and been DECEASED somewhere in there for OVER AN HOUR.
Coated in gel and eye goo, all I could tell was it had a HARD, BLACK SHELL and LITTLE LEGS. Horrifying.
My eye’s still a little swollen, and I’m not entirely certain there isn’t still a leg or wing or something in there, but it’s doing better today. I’m sure it’ll be ok. But longtime readers of this newsletter will know that my brain cannot help but try to make some sort of meaning out of this event.
A couple of obvious conclusions might be, “Quit staring at well-dressed women” and “You should wear your glasses, like you’re supposed to.” But those are far too reductive for me.
So here’s my main takeaway: At any given moment, you can be surprised by unexpected beauty or pain, and life, at its core, is incredibly random. Anything can happen if you keep your eyes open. ANYTHING. CAN. HAPPEN.
:) Teresa
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Solid twist. No notes.
TERESA OH MY GOD