Friday, August 28, 2009

Come peek at my naked fancy

I'm easy.

Easy to amuse.

I know because I crack myself up all of the time.

I can see something, and my brain goes "oh boy!" and runs off into a flight of fancy.

Sometimes I can even explain the fancy to someone else afterwards.

I'll give you an example.

Yesterday I was walking in the park and right at the entrance to my favorite path there was a huge triangular orange sign that said "TREE WORK."

Well, I immediately took a picture of the sign with my camera phone and my brain ran off into a couple of story tangents to go with the sign.

Why?

Because the image that the TREE WORK sign conjured up for me as soon as I read it was trees working.

Like behind the counter at Starbucks, as nurses, driving buses, selling newspapers, like that.

And my brain decided that this sign was put up in the forest as an advertisement so that trees could line up behind it and get placed for jobs.

Kind of like a woodland employment agency.

But, sadly, not all of the trees would be suitable for employment.

Because trees can be dumb as a post and are often as thick as a 2X4.

And some of them?

Like Hawthorne trees?

They can be quite prickly.

And Oaks, don't even get me started on how hard Oaks are to work with.

Obvious conclusion?

Some trees would be left jobless.

That led me to envisioning a tree standing on a street corner with a sign on a string that said "will work for fertilizer."

That's the way my brain works.

From surdity to absurdity in five seconds flat.

In my life I've been blessed with a few people who get the things I think and love me for them.

Hopefully some of them showed up today.

If not, oh well, it amused me.

Twice.

Once when I thought it, and once when I typed it out for ya'all.

And isn't that what living well is all about?

Being happy with what you create in your mind and in your life?

I like to think so.

And since I'm the one thinking it, I agree wholeheartedly with myself on this point.

And the idea of trees shuffling around hawking nuts at a ballgame?

That just kills me.


 

[I blame this whole flight of fancy on seeing The Wizard of Oz for the first time at a highly impressionable age.]

19 comments:

Alan said...

My wife can sit there and suddenly burst out laughing because she's had a little brain trip that she thought was just hilarious. Often it's not particularly funny, or it's impossible to explain, but she's had a great time. We call it her "self-inducing moments".

:)

Karen from Mentor said...

Ah, Alan,
I like your wife already.

And it just reinforces my opinion that you're a smart guy.

Because you picked her.

Imaginative women are the best.

:0)

Anonymous said...

It sort of scares me that I had the same initial thought when I read "Tree Work." I didn't come up with your funny follow-up though.

jennifertanner said...

I've always believed that trees talk to each other. They've witnessed man's folly since the beginning of time. And some have lived to talk about it.

~Tim said...

Hmm, trees as day laborers?

This one tree I worked with, it was a real son of a beech. Or maybe a birch. I don't remember now.

And knot that I wood, but I heard about this piece of ash....

Karen from Mentor said...

YAY!!! Tim,
A fellow pun enthusiast. I giggled and kicked my little feet.

Don't go for the ash, she might look good in the yard, but I hear that with their compound leaves and suceptibility to ash borer that they're really high maintenance....well, that and they demand jewelry before they'll let you sleep with them.

Karen from Mentor said...

Linda,
I grinned at the "it sort of scared me" bit.
Hey, don't they say great minds think alike?

I'm just starting to rub off on you. Yay! Soon you'll be wearing your tiara to the grocery store.

:0)

Karen from Mentor said...

And Jen? [laughing]

How much sleep have you had this week?

:0)

P.S. My goal in life is to one day visit the giant Sequoias. When I get there I'll sit down and listen to what they have to say and get back to you.

judy said...

Just what I needed. A glass of wine and a trip through Karen's lovely mind. Happy sigh...

Rougeneck said...

It *amused* me....

Karen from Mentor said...

Oh good Judy, I'm glad I rounded out your day for you. [my mind is *lovely* fancy that!]

:0)

Karen from Mentor said...

Hey CG,
Been missing you lovely lady.

Glad you were tickled.

:0)

Anonymous said...

I love how your mind works! Trees that will work for fertilizer cracked me up! =))

I wish I could always type in the things I think of, cause after I get home and sit at the PC the exact phrases that initially made me laugh just won't come back... gotta work on that somehow, hope I'm not boring meanwhile :P

Karen from Mentor said...

Estrella I can't imagine a situation where you would be boring.

Glad I made you laugh.

:0)

Lauren C said...

holy geez, this was too good.
I'm absolutely stuck on the idea of trees hawking nuts at a ballgame. or working at Starbucks. somehow those seemed more ridiculous than trees as nurses.

though trees selling newspapers? that's like a human selling body parts... oh wait... people do that. man. humans are screwed up.

Karen from Mentor said...

giggling. just giggling.
Karen :0)

Anonymous said...

Karen, you crack me up! I've got to get over here more often, 'cause you are hilarious. Thanks for the chuckles (in the random thoughts, too!).

Marisa Birns said...

How about trees becoming pugilists?

After all, the Ents in Lord of the Rings movie knew how to pack a whallop of a punch to those nasty orcs.

Then they can buy multi-million dollar homes and go out with hot tree babes (why did thick wood make me think of that...) and have their wives find out and divorce them and take half their money.

You know. The American Dream.

Jodi MacArthur said...

I love your flights of fancy, Karen. It's good to normal 'thing' and put it in everyday situations. I'd actually like to see your working tree story as a bizarro short. Have you written the genre before?

Ps.
The tree were pretty awesome in Lord Of The Rings. I'd hire them as security for my yard any ol' day.