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Callie Feyen

It Could’ve Been Sad

in Uncategorized on 06/07/12

One morning, while the girls and I were hanging out outside, a yellow jacket flew by. I screeched, and it dropped dead.  Just fell to the ground.  No longer.  Personally, I think I might’ve scared it.  I think those yellow jackets know better than to mess with the lady who squashes them with her shoe when they fly into her home.  Or maybe he was just being kind.  “I’ll just save her the agony of having to end me when I enter her home.  She’s such a nice person.  Funny, too.” (New readers of this blog: I’m terrified of any sort of bee.  I have about ten posts where I discuss my fear.  I even wrote a letter to the yellow jackets.  I don’t think they read it, though.)

Do you see it lying there?  It is kind of sad, isn’t it?  Except that it’s not.

Anyway, Hadley took note of the incident which prompted this discussion:

“Does everything die?”

“Everything living.”

“What about palm trees?  Do they die?”

“Yes.”

“Right, because they get cut down and then they die.”

“Then Harper adds, “Yea, like I have palm trees in my dino box.”

That seems about the right amount of mental and emotional energy one can give to this topic on a warm summer day, so I just left it at that: palm trees in a dino box.

7 Comments

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Comments

  1. Valerie says

    July 6, 2012 at 10:08 am

    Wow, the scream of death. Look at you. Don’t ever scream when I’m around, OK?

    I love the twists and turns conversations take with little kids. Joshua always wonders why I laugh so much when he talks, but it just strikes me funny how they can turn a conversation to a completely different subject, but it’s all connected somehow.

    Reply
  2. alison says

    July 8, 2012 at 8:51 pm

    maybe you should tell them about the time that you and jesse and damon thought the palm frond in the road was a dead body. see where they go with that.

    Reply
    • Valerie says

      July 9, 2012 at 8:55 am

      That must have been a big palm frond.

      Reply
      • calliefeyen says

        July 9, 2012 at 6:23 pm

        It was huge, Valerie. The three of us were so freaked out and Alison was driving like a maniac. I wish I had it on tape because it was hilarious. You know who freaked out the most? Damon!

        Reply
        • alison says

          July 9, 2012 at 9:14 pm

          valerie–come on. when’s the last time you saw me drive like a maniac? they all just sat there wide-eyed and mouth-agape as i was driving at normal speed at this “body” in the road. and when i was about three feet from it (because floridians don’t swerve for such things), they all started screaming–which is alarming when you’re the driver.

          Reply
          • calliefeyen says

            July 10, 2012 at 5:53 am

            All I have to say is that it was a dark and stormy night and Alison has a heavy foot. There is NOTHING that can prepare you for a palm frond. Fromd? What is it again? We have nothing like that in Chicago or DC. Maybe pigeons. Or politicians.

    • calliefeyen says

      July 9, 2012 at 6:22 pm

      Hahahahaha! You know what? When they started talking about the palm trees, this is EXACTLY what I thought of. I still laugh thinking about that. Stupid city kids. 🙂

      Reply

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Hi! I’m Callie. I’m a writer and teacher living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I write Creative Nonfiction, and in my oldest daughter Hadley’s words, I “use my imagination to add a bit of sparkle to the story.” I’m a contributor for Coffee+Crumbs, Off the Page, Makes You Mom, and Relief Journal. My writing has also been featured on Art House America, Tweetspeak Poetry, Good Letters, and Altarwork, and in 2014 I was one of the cast members of the Listen To Your Mother DC show.

I hold an MFA in Creative Writing from Seattle Pacific University, and I am working on my first book that will be published through TS Poetry Press.

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When I was in fourth grade, I got my front tooth k When I was in fourth grade, I got my front tooth knock out during a baseball game. I was in the dugout, trying to make a butterfly in the dirt with my shoe. The batter, who’d hit not just a home run, but a grand slam, came running in and everyone cheered and so did I because I’d gotten really good at reading cues for when a good thing happens in sports. I even attempted a high five, and somehow I knocked my face into her batting helmet, thus spending the good part of that weekend summer day in the dentist’s office getting a root canal.

No teeth were lost in this latest incident, but I was lost in a bit of imagining on Sunday when I tripped and fell on Packard while running. I look like I’ve been in a bar fight and my shoulder looks similar to how Wesley’s looked after being attacked by an ROUS. 

But I’m going into work today, and when I told my boss I’m nervous about how I look she said, “It’s OK because you have a story,” and if that isn’t the best thing you could ever say to me, I’m not sure what is. 

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