Tuesday, November 17, 2009

what are you gonna remember?



as i've mentioned before, the primary guiding philosophy i use in life (prior to my new one of writing is the new praying) is what are you gonna remember? in pretty much any decision-making situation, i ask myself that question. i'll also ask you that question if you're ever trying to make a decision in my presence.

well, this evening, when i was totally in the zone, sewing on a new quick fleece-backed quilt for sabin's new and improved big girl bedroom, a particular memory kept popping unbidden into my head. and so i thought i'd share it with all of you. because it's a good one.



i've written before about being in a typhoon in the philippines, but several stories happened during that storm. we were in batangas (south of manila) for a workshop and were a group of about 30 people, working very hard during the day and relaxing very hard when we weren't working. one evening, despite the rain, we ventured out for dinner. it had been raining all day, an unbelievable amount of rain. i understood, seeing that rain, at long last what they meant by it raining in sheets. i tried to capture it in the picture above, but it didn't really do it justice.



we got ready for dinner and ran for the bus. my sister used a very environmentally conscious rain hat which she had made from a lush bag - lush being pretty environmentally conscious themselves. we had a nice dinner, some karaoke and a few beers. san miguel light and san miguel extra dry were our beers of choice in the philippines. very refreshing, as my red-eyed sister illustrates (these were taken before i got the "big" camera).



it was very dark and still pouring down rain when we piled back into the bus to go back to our hotel. my sister decided to stick her head out the open window to holler something at someone, as she is prone to doing at times (she has the occasional issue remembering to use her indoor voice), especially after a refreshing malt beverage or two. when she pulled her head back in, off into the rain-soaked darkness on the OUTSIDE of the bus flew one of her giant diamond earrings, which she'd received as a pushing present (thank you, spud, for that phrase) for her second son. very strangely, at exactly that moment, i was reading a text message on my mobile phone from her ex-husband, asking me to have her call as soon as she could about that second child's visit to the EAR doctor!

naturally, losing an item so precious and laden with meaning in such an impossible setting at the same moment she learned her child needed ear surgery was very traumatic and she became understandably hysterical very upset. we screamed to the bus driver not to move the bus and acquired a flashlight and went out to look for the lost earring. bearing in mind that it was midnight, pitch black and a typhoon was raging, it seemed pretty much a long shot that it would ever be found. then, one of the guys said, "i'll find it, i've got snake eyes." and he proceeded to leave the bus, walk straight out into the darkness and nonchalantly pick up the earring.

he said afterwards that he got a clear picture of it in his head and knew exactly where it was. pretty cool, don't you think?

13 comments:

rxBambi said...

Wow, that is pretty cool, and kindy creepy too. Awesome that the guy found the earrings. Think he could come my way and find mine? I had them in a baggie on the kitchen table (which I promptly threw away cuz the kitchen was a mess).

Bee said...

Very cool. I wonder what the opposite of snake eyes are? Because that's what MY husband has: a complete inability to find anything.

McGillicutty said...

Awesome story and it made me forget about my rice on the stove! Funny that I forgot about rice whilst reading a story about the phillipines... i lost some really precious earring lately too and even weirder is that I also threw them away while i was in a fit of pique 'cos the house is a mess!!!!told you Bambi and I are spookily the same person.

Bonnie Zieman, M.Ed. said...

Tres cool.

Char said...

that is way awesome.

Cyndy said...

Serendipity. Truly, and not just because I like to say it, which I do.

What am I going to remember? A lot of the little stuff which doesn't seem to mean much to anyone else, but which totally made a moment, a day. In my old age, I'll be sharing tales like my dad's "war stories," while my grandchildren graciously tolerate me.

Was cool to see a picture of your sister ~ it added another layer of knowing you from afar...

Unknown said...

That is so cool!

hele said...

very cool! if he lived around here someone would soon wisk him awy for sangoma training :)

Unknown said...

That's so cool! I'm glad she got it back!

cat said...

Great story!

I love the motto.

Anonymous said...

Now that is quite a story. When you picture the movements of all the mental and psychic energies it's even more astounding. Like an accidental smush of cooperative and subversive energies. Weird.

Molly said...

Snake eyes! I haz them. Really, I'm a master at finding lost things and that guy was totally right, it's about having a very clear image of the 'shape' of something in your mind - enables you to scan an area, instantly disregarding anything that's the wrong shape, until you find the item.
I'm freakily renowned for them, just never had a name before. Snake eyes is kinda cool :)
Oh and, that photo from the hotel does do the rain justice - sheets indeed!

paris parfait said...

Now THAT is a wonderful story!