Slice of Life: More Absentmindedness, Frozen Yogurt, Funny Dreams, Creativity and Insomnia

September 17, 2017

Lately, I've been feeling very energized to pursue various creative goals, puppetry-related things in part but also some other projects. All of this creative energy is having an interesting effect on me, including more absentmindedness ... which was previously mentioned in a recent post of mine.

In one recent incident, Dad and I were headed to church for our second choir rehearsal of the year. Dad has joined as a baritone who might shift between bass and tenor, and I'm in the soprano section. As Dad is driving us, I began to share with him some of the crazy puppetry ideas buzzing around in my head. I am not the only absent-minded one in the family, and I ended up distracting him. Dad drove past one of our usual turns, and the driving mistake probably added about 10 minutes to our trip. We turned up late, not for choir rehearsal, but for the prayer meeting that precedes it.

Then, just last night, Dad and I went out together again to pick up some yummy cold stuff from a frozen dessert place near us. (I guess they call themselves a frozen dessert place, since they sell soft serve ice cream and frozen yogurt, gelato, sorbet, etc.) This place is part of a little strip mall, and, most always, when we go to this strip mall, we are headed to the grocery store. I was in mental writing mode, and my feet, once out of the car, were programmed by automatic pilot to go to the grocery store entrance. Dad said something to me before I actually went through the door, and then I turned around and saw some pumpkins on display just outside the entrance. I started patting the pumpkins affectionately, because they reminded me of my A. Morris Pumpkin puppet character. Then, I followed Dad to get our frozen yogurt, and I don't think I ever explained to him why I was patting the pumpkins with such affection.

Me with A. Morris Pumpkin

Mom didn't accompany us but put in an order for "something vanilla or something citrus-y and fruity." So, I fixed her up a Creamsicle bowl with vanilla ice cream and orange sorbet, then topped it with some little fruity candies called mango stars and strawberry boba, raspberries and blueberries. I like Creamsicle too, but I chose different flavors for myself, Nutella gelato and caramel macchiato frozen yogurt. With all of that chocolatey and mocha stuff, I did give myself some fruit too, some Bing cherries and blackberries.

These recent absent-minded incidents are not as embarrassing as something that happened one or two years ago. When I was working for the newspaper, I would walk down from my office to the 7Eleven for my lunch and pick up a sandwich and some fruit and a drink. I was such a frequent customer there that I had a pretty friendly relationship with one of the workers, and he bought my first mystery book, Action Men with Silly Putty, for Kindle. Still, it wasn't the only business in the area I frequented. There were one or two other businesses nearby where I might go for lunch.

One day, I was in full blast mental creative writing mode during my lunch break, and I walked down to the 7Eleven on automatic pilot. I had really intended to go some place else. As soon as I walked in the door, I paused and thought, "Why am I here?" My friend there saw me pausing and probably looking confused, so then, I made my situation worse, and, after making eye contact with him, told him that I didn't mean to come here! This, I thought afterwards, was bordering on rudeness. How can you tell a business, especially one where you're on good relations, that you didn't mean to come there or buy anything? So then, of course, I felt obliged to buy my lunch there.

When I went to the counter to pay for it, he asked, laughing a little bit, "So, you didn't mean to come here?" I tried to explain, and, with his next words, he made me feel much, much better. "You," he said, "are an artist. Your mind can be in two places at the same time."

The other effect this recent burst of creative energy has had on me is getting my brain wired up late at night. I've been trying to get enough sleep, but it's a struggle. Ideas want to come to mind after I'm already in bed and trying to sleep, even when I know I'm exhausted. It doesn't feel like an entirely negative thing. I like myself like this rather than the me who is too overwhelmed with other concerns in life to be creative. I hope I can get a balance between working hard at my creative goals and also sleeping well at night.

I suppose I'm not alone. I mentioned in a recent post that I've read Jim Henson's biography. As I was reading it, I kept feeling like this man was a lot like me. It's not just the puppetry connection that I felt, and it wasn't thinking that our creative ideas or particular gifts were all that similar. It was the description of his basic temperament and personality that sounded a lot like me. He was described as quiet, calm, not easily ruffled, all words or phrases that friends and family use to describe me. There was even an interesting scenario in the book where he was in a position where he needed to fire someone from The Muppet Show, but when the person was sent to his office, Henson just couldn't do it and ended up giving him a bear hug. I thought, "Yeah, I can see myself doing something similar." I would have a hard time firing someone too. Another thing that I learned from the book is that his creative drive sometimes robbed him of sleep too.

By the way, at the time that I was reading the book, I kept thinking Henson must be, according to the Myers Brigg system, an INFP like I am, and later found a personality site that agreed with my assessment. Rather than explaining the significance of the four letters for those who might not know the system, I'll just include this little summary of the type from Manual: A Guide to the Development and Use of the Myers-Brigg Type by Myers & McCaulley.

Full of enthusiasms and loyalties, but seldom talk of these until they know you well. Care about learning, ideas, language, and independent projects of their own. Tend to undertake too much, then somehow get it done. Friendly, but often too absorbed in what they are doing to be sociable. Little concerned with possessions or physical surroundings.

I have some insomniac tendencies. I've been listening to the Book of Psalms on audio via YouTube to help me sleep, and last night, the last Psalm I remember hearing was 39, so, obviously, I didn't just pop right off to sleep. On Saturday, I know I napped, which is good, and I was dreaming of Cavalier King Charles spaniels. I think I know what inspired it. I had been watching a movie recently where a dog of that breed made an appearance, and I was admiring how pretty it was. It amazes me, and also strikes me funny, how often I dream of animals. It makes me think I'm more of an animal enthusiast than I claim to be. I even had a "celebrity" animal visit me in my dreams recently. I follow a clever, trained bunny called Bini on YouTube. In one of my recent dreams, I met Bini the Bunny, and I was so happy.

I suppose I should tell you about my weird Ambien experience. I find it funny now. In fact, as early as the following day, it became a source of laughs. Some years back, I went with some friends to a camp called Camp of the Woods. We did some work projects there such as boarding up cabins for the winter season, or, as I remember one year, folding up a lot of fitted sheets, and, in return, we got to use the camp facilities in our down time.

I was taking Ambien for sleep at the time and was stupid enough to think that I could sit up casually drinking my chamomile tea in the lounge with my friends after taking my pill. I would go to bed after I drank my tea. I started to get double vision and announced, just as casually, that everyone had two heads and that it was probably due to the Ambien. I got up to go to bed, and my roommate for the weekend and one of our other friends got worried about me and led me back to my room. I had another weird visual phenomenon, where the pattern on the hallway carpet seemed to be floating at my waist level. They told me not to look at it, but that seemed hard to avoid. The next day, one of my friends was teasing me that the moose head in the lounge must have been talking to me that night, and I told all my friends that they all looked much, much better that morning.

I don't mean to discourage anyone from taking Ambien temporarily if it's needed. I think it did me more good than harm, and I could have avoided the visual effects if I had gone to bed promptly after taking it. Ah well. Fiction writers wonder about strange medical "what if" situations, and I have been known to ask my doctor and nurse friends bizarre questions about what would happen to somebody in different medical situations, including "What would happen if someone was shot with a tranquilizer dart?" In part, this experience of mine gave me some inspiration for that scenario in the first Action Men.

What about you? Are you a creative type? Do ideas keep you awake at night sometimes?

Wouldn't it be nice if we could work out our ideas during sleep in our dreams and had the technology to note it all down without the need of waking up?

My Dad, My Hero, My Helper

My father's a unique man. Father's Day cards are often centered on certain themes: sports, golf, fishing, hunting ... None of these themes seem to suit my father. My father seems nonchalant about sports. He'd rather watch Discovery Channel than watch a football game. He is full of fishing stories from his youth, but this is not a hobby he's pursued in recent years. I found a perfect Father's Day card for Dad several years ago. The overall print of the card was like a green circuit board. How suitable for my father, the retired electrical engineer.

I had a vague notion -- albeit very vague -- of circuit boards early on in life. Back in the '70s, a long time before personal computers became so common, Dad built his first computer from a kit. I remember trying to help him by putting the keys in the keyboard, only I was putting them in alphabetical order.

Dad earned 44 patents over his career at ITT. What exactly did he invent? Well, I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.

I jest, but actually that is not too far from the truth. Many of the projects Dad worked on he could not even tell his own family. I do know that he worked on a secure phone used by Ronald Reagan. Here is how Dad sums up his career in one of his online bios.

I worked for ITT for 43 years before retiring, getting about as many patents. Highlights would include designing one of the first computers specializing in voice processing, and designing the navigation computer system used in the GPS satellites. In addition to designing computer and communications hardware, I've written lots of software, including tools for hardware and software design.

Dad may not be a sports enthusiast, but he does have his hobbies. He lists his hobbies on one site as "recreational math." I never found math to be recreational, have you? I'm not entirely sure what that means, but he does sudoku puzzles, so I suppose they might be considered as recreational math. He also began selling these math art T-shirts on Zazzle. Here's an example, the crystal goblet T-shirt.

I'll let him describe it in his own words.

This design began as two data-flow diagrams to show the dispersal of data by a random permutation device (an application of U.S. patent 5,734,721). One diagram looked like the top of a goblet, and the other like the bottom, so the two diagrams were joined. Both parts show the same data-flow network (flow is downward). The bottom part traces where two data bits can go (starting at the top of the stem of the goblet), and the top part traces where two data bits can come from.

If you happen to share Dad's enthusiasm for math or know someone else who does, you can order this and other math design shirts at www.zazzle.com/mathart.

Dad also has his own art hobby ... origami. He has even created and published a few of his own origami designs, like the origami waterlily design below.

If you would like to create your own origami waterlilies, he has blogged his own origami tutorial for the waterlily design here.

Perhaps, this is beginning to sound more like a portfolio than a personal tribute, but I look up to my father, and growing up, I felt like my father could do anything.

Dad could and still can be goofy too!

Today, that opinion hasn't changed much, which is why I don't hesitate to ask him to help me in my hare-brained schemes.

A couple of years ago, I put on an Oktoberfest puppet show at my home church with the help of the puppetry team I lead.

I can't take credit for the beautiful liederhosen and dirndl costumes. Betty, my right hand woman, did that. One of the songs we used in our performance is this completely insane song, "The Chicken Yodel."

As I was listening to the music, my insane imagination came up with the idea that a chicken puppet would be on the top standing tier of my stage laying eggs, actually ping pong balls, which would fall down to the bottom kneeling tier where a little girl puppet, one of the cuties pictured, would try and catch them in her frying pan. I talked to Dad about this and wondered how to accomplish this ping pong ball craziness, and he came up with his design, a henhouse prop that would perch on the top tier of the stage and dispense the ping pong balls when the chicken roosted and hit a lever.

Above each nest is a wire trigger to release,, on each depression, an egg from the storage bin to a hole through the nest so that it looks like the chicken is laying an egg that drops out the bottom of the nest.

The gate mechanism lets one egg roll toward the hole, while stopping the next egg from advancing.

I had something simpler in mind, but Dad had come up with a rather complex contraption. He kept testing it, tweaking it and perfecting it. Dad spent hours and hours on this prop, and in the end, it was very successful, with children sitting front row during showtime, laughing and excited over the escapee ping pong balls rolling their way.

This is the origami folding, puppet prop making, sudoku puzzling dad I adore. It would take many more pages to express just how much he means to me.

To read about one of my favorite childhood memories with Dad, click here.

The Creative Life: Sparking Ideas for the New Year

As the new year rolls in, people reflect on goals. I'm always thinking about goals, although I hesitate to call them "New Year's resolutions." A resolution, to me, seems like something that can be broken. I never consider a goal to be broken, in those terms. A project can be shifted to the back burner. You can get off course with a particular goal, but you can always get back on it again, particularly a long-term goal that does not have an absolute deadline.

I am on vacation from my job for this week leading up to New Year's Day. During this "staycation" time, I plan to work towards several goals. Already, there seems to be too many projects for me to give equal attention. I guess you could say I have my fingers in many pies ...

Or a lot of irons in the fire ...

Or a lot of balls in the air.

I think you get the idea by now. :)

My birthday is quickly approaching, January 9th. For the past few years, I have planned a mystery dinner party for friends to celebrate my birthday.

The photo below is from my mystery party in 2013, a body outline my father made on the balcony. I had several members of my family involved in different ways.

Yes, you can buy mystery dinner party kits. I have considered this option in the past.

Here's a site that seems to be a good source for these, although I went a different route.

Perhaps, because I'm a bit creatively insane, I thought it would be fun to create my own version of the game. I believe mine works differently than most you would buy. The usual pattern seems to be that the guests act in the role of different suspects. In my game, the guests are all detectives, and I enlisted members of my family to be the suspects. I modeled mine on the English manor mystery. My brother Tim acted as the butler. My sister-in-law Melody acted as a maid one year and an opera singer, a guest at the manor, another year. My father played a professor, a manor guest, at one of these dinners. I even had my oldest nephew, Bill, involved one year.

I admit that my family are extremely good sports. Not only did my mother and Melody help me serve a multi-course meal Downton Abbey style, they also ate in the servants' quarters, aka the next room, instead of with the aristocracy and their detective guests.

This is a pre-dinner photo from 2013.

I'll give you the basic idea. I put my friends on teams of detectives. The first year, friends were assigned to teams according to famous mystery writers and given fictional detective identities and name tags. For instance, the Agatha Christie Team had an Hercule Poirot, a Miss Marple and a Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. The next year, I did something similar with detective TV shows and fictional TV detectives.

Teams were supplied with evidence folders. When the game started, teams drew cards which I had typed up ahead of time. The cards would either instruct them to go into a certain room of the house in search of a clue or into a certain room of the house to interrogate a particular suspect. Clues were labeled by number in the different rooms, objects with cards offering an explanation of the clue as to what evidence was found connected to this object. There was a card left for each team at that location which they could collect into their evidence folder. The interrogation of suspects was all scripted, both the questions that detectives could ask of a certain suspect and the suspect's answer to the question. These answers were also on cards that detective teams could collect into their evidence folders. Other bonus cards gave options like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Of course, I had to throw in some red herrings.

As I type this, I wonder if I could make a little joke with some more literal red herrings, some Swedish fish candies. I'm not really sure where this idea is going yet, if it is a workable idea or just a bit of goofiness.

Does this sound complicated? It was quite complicated to create but also very rewarding, as my guests had a blast. The game concept did not have to recreated, but each year, a different mystery was created. It's also a bit tricky that my birthday follows so closely after Christmas. I should be glad I have this week off to make progress in my planning.

While looking at a photo of my guests at the table from a previous year's party, I noticed a candy jar in the center of the table. For some inexplicable reason, this triggered a thought of fortune cookies and the idea of a clue tucked inside of a fortune cookie. I really don't know how the candy jar got my mind working along that track. I remembered there are ways to order custom fortune cookies with your own messages inside.

Then, my brain started thinking, "And aren't there such things as Chinese puzzle boxes?" An Internet search did not turn up Chinese puzzle boxes, but it did turn up Japanese puzzle boxes.

So now, my brain is dreaming up something along this line, and, of course, with this sort of theme, a Chinese meal. I will update you on my progress.

In church life, I am known as "the puppet lady." I lead a puppet ministry team and write my own material. We have performed for various functions in the church to provide an uplifting Bible message in a fun and, often, funny way. I have been working on a script on a "fruit of the spirit" theme from Galatians 5:22-23. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

My puppet presentation, which, at this point, is just a concept and a partial script, is inspired by old variety shows. Some of the confused puppet characters want to demonstrate literal fruits and pop in with little bits of various fruit referencing well-known songs: "The Lime in the Coconut", "I Heard It Through the Grape Vine", "The Banana Boat Song", etc.  I thought it would be fun to have a puppet dressed as Carmen Miranda.

Aside from some association with this lady and some crazy fruity turban, I did not know much about her until I began to look up old movie clips on Youtube.  What an interesting, colorful vision, a kind of entertainment that is now passe.

I mention this loony idea to my creative partner, Betty, my interim pastor's wife. I suppose she is as loony as I am, because some days later, she sends me the photo below. I have sometimes called Betty the Edith Head of Puppetry.

In addition to these ideas, I still want to work on the next "Action Men" novel and also do some other less fun but necessary tasks.

I once read a description of my personality type, INFP in the Myers Brigg system, that says my type tends to take on too much but somehow gets it done. This seems to be fairly accurate.

So, these are some of the things I intend to make progress on this week. I once worked in a child care program the director described as "loosely structured." I suppose that could also describe my organization style. I am making plans but flexible plans.

Creative types, do you find yourself juggling several projects at once?