There is a seemingly benign form of entertainment that was secretly engineered by Satan. And trust me on this. I’m an expert on how Satan and the entertainment industry go hand-in-hand. Priscilla can back me up. Our junior high teachers made sure we knew our destiny was Hell due to our fondness for cinema and rock music. It’s not Ouija boards or the Magic Eight Ball. The real culprit – the one they don’t warn you about in fundamentalist church school – is the jigsaw puzzle. Created by the devil himself as a snare. Existing only as a test to see if you’ll shun the family for a life of swearing and drinking.
This weekend was supposed to be fun and productive. It began on Friday with a puzzle my middle kid received as a birthday gift. It seemed like an excellent project to train her concentration. Only Star Wars, horses and art can captivate her attention for more than 30 minutes. I should have known how this would turn out.
The kids abandoned the task about and hour in. They moved on to projects that required crayons and a glue stick. A dictionary was brought out to define “paranoid”. I’m not sure if the word was being applied to me. The details are hazy as I was in my puzzle mode and generally dismissive of idle conversation. But at midnight Saturday it was just me and the puzzle… because… it… must… be… finished. It’s akin to peeling paint. I can’t leave that alone either.
Funny that by Sunday evening, with all the tricky sections completed and the scene finally taking shape, the kidos meandered back in and messed up my puzzle groove. I stepped to the kitchen to make them a little dinner and they finish while shouting “hooray” as if they’d seen it through to the end.
And that was the extent of my weekend. A 500 piece Wizard of Oz jigsaw puzzle. Sad and pathetic. Loads of laundry to be finished. The house looking just as it did Friday afternoon.
Pie Pans & Pigtails 