I have tried very hard to become eccentric. It can be very difficult when you are married to a dentist, live in the suburbs, drive a, oh the horror, minivan, and have three young children. My children think I am exotic if I get a salad at McDonald’s but I would like to be a bit more unique.
So I was feeling so eccentric on Tuesday when I drove to Ennis for a skein of yarn. Ennis is an hour and a half from my house. I got up and went. It was very exciting. Until I talked to a couple friends and realized that because we live in Montana, this isn’t very eccentric. We don’t have many stores in Helena so a lot of people go to Missoula to shop. People know what street a store is on. They know what is around this store. It is amazing. I barely know where Target is and I live two blocks from it.
To top it all off, I was driving all this way for YARN. How domestic and boring is that? I can’t even come up with something eccentric to buy. We tried to go to a butcher while there and that could have been a little eccentric. If we bought a lot of jerky. But they were closed for a wedding. Stupid domestic bliss.
But then I thought of the conversation I had with the proprietor of the yarn shop. She was from Germany, had moved to LA and become a screenplay editor, had a falling out with a screenplay writer, followed The Horse Whisperer to Montana, and fell in love. I spoke to her about writing and then I spoke a little German with her. She told me I could call her and talk with her in German occasionally to get my language back. I need to speak more German to strangers. Especially the ones who actually speak German.
I decided that the conversation in the yarn shop was on the side of eccentric. I am going to keep trying, though. I will find ways to be eccentric. Without using a lot of cats.
