Things I observe when Getting Out

dangling cord

This is how people without kids live, with lamp cords dangling right there for anyone to reach. I find this fascinating.

Can you IMAGINE life with dangling cords? I certainly can’t.

I mean, when you’re gettin’ busy without the birth control you don’t really consider the possibility that you’d one day experience culture shock when entering a home with dangling lamp cords.

You see the lamp on your dresser and you think to yourself, lamps have cords. Period. No big deal. Why am I thinking about lamp cords while gettin’ busy?

But then you suddenly find yourself, years later, walking into a home with dangling lamp cords and a tingle ripples through your body that you can’t explain. Things look strangely out of place, and there’s a stillness in the air. It feels familiar, but in an alternate reality sort of way, like you’ve had this dream before.

And then it hits you – dangling lamp cords! You had one back in 1997! It was a beautiful clear glass lamp positioned precariously on a stand in the corner, and nowhere on the lamp shade did it say “pmodkyt” in brown marker.

As this memory heightens your senses you pull your cardigan a little tighter across your chest, hiding the grease spot where the french fry landed after your son threw it across the table; you set your bag down inconspicuously behind the chair – the bag that’s big enough to hold two water bottles, a container of fish crackers, and a change of clothes; you quickly run your fingers through your hair and wonder to yourself, Did I brush my hair this week?

And then the wine is poured, and the music is turned on, and someone greets you – the words make sense! You understand the words she is speaking! You realize all is well in the universe and the only thing separating You from Them is a silly lamp cord and an over-active imagination.

2 thoughts on “Things I observe when Getting Out”

  1. haha! i saw you thinking this when you came over to our house 2 years ago, pre-baby! i’m with you though. we now only use lamps as non-functioning decor in really high places that small hands can’t reach! i have hopes of plugging them back in, some day, a very long time from now.

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