Author Archives: beth

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About beth

Ann Arbor-ite writes about enjoying life with all of its ironies and surprises.

style?

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not sure what category my style falls into, or is it a style?

it’s me, and i’m happy with that

 

“i have grown a little tired of over-careful decorations.

somehow the homeyness is lost when the decorator is too careful.”

-elsie de wolfe

 

Elsie de Wolfe (born 1865, New York—died 1950, Versailles, France) was an American interior decorator, hostess, and actress, best known for her innovative nad anti-victorian interiors.

your words.

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when you’ve just settled in for the night

and someone calls asking you to go out

you roll your eyes, you sigh

 then have a couple of ways to turn down the offer,

one leaves the caller with a better feeling about you than the other:

 

option#1

“i don’t feel like going out tonight.”

lazy

unoriginal

puts the blame on you

 

option#2

“for now, my place is here.”

surprising

philosophical

you answer to a higher power

choose your words wisely.

 

“facts matter not at all. perception is everything. it’s certainty.”

-stephen colbert

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

credits: franklin springboro library, take a hike photography

 

 

 

mixing.

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when you have so much to celebrate but only one space to display it:

on a random moose with a bandana.

end of winter, easter holiday, spring’s arrival, and your home team’s victory.

done.

“what i adore is mixing the unexpected, things you don’t imagine should go together.”
-paul smith
*Sir Paul Brierley Smith is an English fashion designer. His reputation is founded on his designs for men’s clothing, but his business has expanded into other areas as well. Smith was made a Royal Designer for Industry in 1991.

allo…

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when speaking to someone with an accent

i accidentally/empathetically pick it up

without even realizing it

maybe kind of trying to meet them halfway

but it doesn’t sound like the real accent

 i find myself kind of stuck in an in-between zone.

when i was in austraila

many people guessed that i was canadian

my accent had become a mashup

of american english blended with an aussie-ish sound and a bit of slang thrown in.

 people have told me for years

 when i answer my phone

that i have a lilting accent

 with some sort of an undefined european sound to it

‘allo…’

 they are sometimes taken aback for a minute

‘is this beth?’

‘oui, why do you ask?’

 

“i subconsciously mimic whomever I’m talking to,

so I’ve been mistaken for a canadian, a south american, and somebody from the west country.”

-chloe pirrie, scottish actress

 

 

 

 

photo credit: ruby lane

foolish things.

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on april fool’s day and most any day

live life with gusto

even if not everyone is quite on board yet.

 

 

“you will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.”

-*sidonie gabrielle colette

*Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, best known as Colette, was a French author and woman of letters. She was also a mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best known in the English-speaking world for her 1944 novella Gigi, which was the basis for the 1958 film and the 1973 stage production of the same name.

 

 

 

image credit: a. thomas, redbook magazine

hopped up.

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put on that easter bonnet 

mix up a big pitcher

of sugar and kool aid

just 5 cents a pack

mix in a pack of kids

(free)

sit back

with your own beverage of choice

and watch the parade begin!

what could be more fun??!

looks like these kids

may be on their second pitcher.

“hippy hoppity easter’s on its way!”

-here comes peter cottontail

What is the origin of Peter Cottontail song?

 The famous “Easter Bunny” came to be in the song, “Here Comes Peter Cottontail.” The song, which tells a simple story of the Easter Bunny delivering baskets filled with candy, eggs, and flowers, was written by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins in 1949.

 

 

image credit: vintage ads 1960, etsy

polished.

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years ago

when traveling to mexico with friends

we decided on the plane

to each take on an alias for our trip

based upon the nail polish color we were each wearing

i immediately became ‘dusty rose’ for a week

 i’ve loved nail polish names ever since.

here is a fun sampling:

  • Alpaca My Bags
  • Teal the Cows Come Home
  • Suzi Takes the Wheel
  • Not Like the Movies
  • Indi-go With the Flow
  • Please Sea Me
  • Pat on the Black
  • So Much Fawn
  • Gray-t Escape
  • I Pink I Can
  • No Baggage Please
  • what would your nail polish alias be?

“when life gives you lemons, have a lemonade while getting a pedicure.”

-author unknown

bowl me over.

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detroit duckpin bowling

with family on the bottom floor

beneath the cambria hotel in the city

it is highly unlikely

i will become a professional bowler

on the circuit one day

as with just one move

my ball flew out of my hand

right into a small slot

between our lane and another

shutting down the system

but what an aim i had

who else could have thrown their ball directly

into that tiny hidden spot

without even knowing it was there?

there must be some kind of award for that.

and we had a lot of laughs.

 

“if i had been on ‘bowling for dollars’, i’d wind up owing them money.

-ricki lake

mistaken.

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A worried animal lover was left red-faced when the baby hedgehog she carefully nursed overnight and rushed to an animal hospital turned out to be a fluffy HAT BOBBLE.
The pom-pom next to its bowl of food 

A wildlife hospital just solved a hilarious case of mistaken identity.

On Thursday, a woman brought in a baby hedgehog to the Lower Moss Nature Reserve and Wildlife Hospital in Cheshire, England — only to be told it wasn’t an animal in need,  but a beanie hat pop-pom.

The caring woman had picked up the ‘hedgehog’ from the side of the road after she noticed it “hadn’t moved or pooped all night,” reported U.K. newspaper The Independent.

“From a distance, you take it at face value. She didn’t handle it at all — she scooped it in a box with some cat food and left it alone in a warm, dark place,” veterinarian Janet Kotze, told the paper.

“She did everything so well. She barely peeked at it because she didn’t want to stress it out.”

“It was pretty obvious to us but I can also see how she was mistaken,” she recalled. “She said, ‘You’re joking! Oh my goodness, how did I do that?’ ”

“She was so concentrated on doing the right thing. She was concerned it hadn’t moved or even pooed — that would be spooky if it had,” Kotze added.

Hedgehog
A real-life hedgehog

The wildlife hospital wrote of the rescue attempt on  Facebook, “Our hearts melted as a kind soul thought she was rescuing a baby hedgehog,” as they jokingly nicknamed the pop-pom ‘hoglet.’

Despite the mistake, the reserve shared that the “adorable” new visitor “still got all the love, complete with some cozy TLC.”

“Remember, kindness knows no bounds, even when it’s to a faux furry friend! 🐾,” the wildlife hospital added while highlighting the importance of rescuing hedgehogs in vulnerable situations.

“Please remember, if you spot a hedgehog out during the day, it’s a sign something’s not right. Pop them in a box with a warm source and seek help from your local vets. Let’s keep our prickly friends safe!”

“he was so benevolent, so merciful a man that, in his mistaken passion, he

would have held an umbrella over a duck in a shower of rain.”

-douglas william jerrold

p.s. confession:  this could have easily been me. especially if i didn’t have my glasses on. 

source credits: escher walcott, people, the independent, kennedy news media photo,
brandi ettis, getty images, lower moss nature reserve

let us read.

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reasons why that reader is frowning:

1.they just read the book they put off for 393,348  years and it’s excellent, why didn’t they read it sooner?

2. they are in a fight with their to be read pile and it is winning.

3. someone just said, “why don’t you read the books you have before getting more?”

4. all of the above.

5, ?

“let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”

~  voltaire, born in 1694.

 

 

credits: good living, paper fury