To town
A few
weeks ago, my daughter Annie and I went into Plainfield/Channahon for a
visit. We talked about everything and
nothing, and as we drove into Plainfield and saw the “Welcome to Plainfield: Mike Collins, Mayor” sign. We joked about how surreal it was to see my
dad’s name on the sign.
First to
my mother’s house, where we admired her garden and visited with her and dad
John and relaxed. Then it was on to my
brother’s new house in Channahon to visit with his kids and fur babies and my
sister and her nieces. It was
unrushed. We don’t often get to have
visits like that one so we treasured every second.
Back to
mom’s, where we had an amazing dinner of shishkabobs, all while having a
watchful eye on the weather because it was going to pour later.
It was
still light out when we departed for the 90 minute drive back to Rockford. We headed back down route 126 heading to 47.
There are no coincidences.
As we’re
driving, Annie looks out the window to her right and there is a solitary black
helium balloon with a string floating across the field that will eventually
cross 126. If balloons could have
intentions, I would say this one was determined to be seen. As we passed it, we looked at each other,
shocked.
How random, Annie says. What
the eff was that all about? What kind of
sign was that supposed to be?
Relax, I tell her. It’s
not a sign at all, just a balloon that escaped from someone’s Over the Hill
party and happened to be blowing across the field right while we were driving.
But I can’t
stop thinking about it on the way home.
Once
there, I feed the husband and pet the dog; or was that feed the dog and pet the
husband? Either way, once I open my
laptop, that black balloon is at the forefront of my brain and I immediately
look up the term on Google. It tells me
there’s a song called Black Balloon, by the Goo Goo dolls.
No,
never heard of that song and I don’t like the Goo Goo dolls. Next.
If I
were dreaming, a black balloon would mean I’m depressed. That’s not it either.
But then…guess what I came
across.
Black Balloon Publishing. I click on it and the first thing I see is their motto: “We Champion the Weird, the Unwieldy, and the
Unclassifiable”. In other words, stuff
that I would write.
I don’t
believe in coincidence, but I do believe in jumping to conclusions, and in this
situation, I jumped higher than I ever have.
Immediately
I “liked” their Facebook page and then went over to Twitter, where I began
following them. Unable to resist telling
them how I found them, I sent a message.
What follows is pure magic.
swoon. |
And to
rachet up the squee factor a little bit more, when you click on the YouTube
video they sent me, it’s Mariah Carey’s song “We Belong Together.”
Like I
said, there are no such things as coincidences.
I love how they replied to you. Completely awesome. :)
ReplyDeleteIt was so cool to hear back from them! It made my night!
ReplyDeleteChris