As I’ve written about before (like here), I have certain repeating, repetitive dialog exchanges with people, especially my boyfriend Michael (not shown, identified,* in any photos in this almost-two-year blog).
For example, when I am telling Michael a story, this exchange can happen:
Me: Guess what I did then, Michael.
Michael (exaggerated pause, indicating thinking): You cried?
Michael is a very good guesser. Maybe that’s because I’m a very good
- straight man and
- crier.
Guess what I’d like to do now!
If you guessed “cry”
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
YOU’RE WRONG!**
And that incorrect guess would show that you’re probably not as good a guesser as Michael, but that’s because
- you don’t know me as well as Michael does and/or
- I sort of set you up there, didn’t I?
This is what I want to do now in this post. I want you to
Guess what I did yesterday.
If you guessed “cry” there …
YOU’RE RIGHT!**
However, I’m not that impressed by that guess, because I told you I cried in my weird blog post yesterday morning.
Also, I did much more than cry, yesterday. How am I going to tell you, in this post, what I did?
Guess!
What I Did Yesterday: A photojournalistic essay
by Ann
I wrote a blog post in the morning, sitting on a sofa with two cats and a calculator.
Then, I had lunch at a favorite restaurant in Arlington, Massachusetts, USA, with my son Aaron.
Guess how old Aaron (not pictured) is! He’s 16, soon to be 17. Guess what I do, sometimes, when I think about how lucky I am that he still likes having lunch with his mother.
Guess how Aaron feels about my taking photos for this blog! Like Michael, Aaron is not exactly thrilled, but he’s also tolerant of my stopping to capture images I like.
Here are the photos I took, as Aaron and I walked through Arlington after lunch:
Aaron got into one of those shots above. Can you guess which one?
Then, because neither Michael nor Aaron wanted to see a movie I wanted to see, guess what I did next! (There’s a hint, about that, in this post.)
Guess what movie I saw, happily, by myself!
There are hints about that, here, here, here, here, and here.
Guess what’s telling me where those hints are, about which movie I saw yesterday. WordPress!
You may not guess this, but I always want to put a “?” at the end of a sentence that begins with “Guess.” Guess who told me not to do that!
My son, Aaron.
Guess what I did when I saw Into The Woods yesterday!
Right now, I am secretly guessing what some of the comments about this post are going to say. Let’s see if I’m RIGHT!**
Any more guesses about what I did yesterday?
Michael, Aaron, and I went into Harvard Square last night.
As I’m looking closely at that last photo, I’m guessing that somebody else wanted to capture a memory of what I was seeing there, last night.
Guess what I did, after I took that picture!
- Michael and I dropped Aaron off at Tasty Burger in Harvard Square, so he could join his friends for a sleep-over.
- Michael and I went home.
- I fell asleep while we were watching “Chopped” (not pictured).
- I decided to give my sleep machine another try by wearing one of these masks (pictured previously here and here):
Guess what I did when I had to wear machines in the hospital when I was a little kid!?!?
I never cried then, actually.
Maybe that’s why I love crying so much, now.
Guess what song I’m going to include in this post!
If you guessed a song from Into the Woods ….
You’re WRONG!**
(Did you guess I would find a live version of Seal singing “Don’t Cry” here on YouTube?)
Guess what I’m going to do now!
I’m going to give thanks, of course, to Michael, Aaron, the Madrona Tree Restaurant in Arlington, Stephen Sondheim, Into the Woods, Harvard Square, Aaron’s friends, Seal, guessers everywhere, and you — of course! — for reading and guessing here, today.
* Would you like to guess whether Michael is pictured, unidentified, in any photos in this blog?
** If you’ve ever been to Boston’s beautiful baseball stadium/temple Fenway Park any time in the last few decades, you might guess how I came up with that kind of RIGHT and WRONG, here in this non-judgmental blog. If not, I’ll tell you.*** The scoreboard in Fenway Park asks people to guess the number of people attending the game and it reveals, after dramatic pauses, who is WRONG and who is RIGHT.
*** If I hadn’t told you, would you have guessed?
