10 irrational gardening thoughts

Unsolicited facts from my social isolation gardening days

I knew I’d forever crossed over to the dark side when one of my neighbors found me hanging half my body out the window. Could I have gone outside to just take the photograph? Yes, yes I could. But opening the entire screen and sliding out of the window to my waist line seemed like a good idea at the time. I wanted a photograph of the white mum (or chrysanthemums) at just the right angle.

“You know you can come outside, right?” I heard a man ask.

I didn’t even want to look up. When I had this bright idea, the sidewalk was empty. I checked beforehand because I knew I’d for sure look ridiculous doing this from a first-floor window.

I tilted my head up and responded to him with a rational explanation.

“You weren’t supposed to see this,” I said. He laughed and kept walking around to his door.

I wondered later, “If I told him I was a November baby*, could that have made a difference?” But I’m pretty sure he’d have still made fun of me — 11/11/11 Maui birthday stories and all. Whatevs. I got my chrysanthemum photograph.

Note: This post was originally published in Medium’s “Tickled.”