Day 325. Star Light …

When you were a kid did you always make a wish before you blew out the candles on your birthday cake?  Maybe I should re-phrase that?  Do you remember your childhood?  Oh, come on, don’t pout.  I’m only joking.  My own feels like it was a million years ago.

Do you remember what you wished for?

Did you wish for a baby sister or brother?  Or for the sibling you already had to magically disappear?  Did you wish for a particular toy you wanted really badly, but your parents said you couldn’t have?  Or a shiny, new bike?  Or a pair of figure skates?  Or for your mother to let you eat chocolate cake and french fries for breakfast?

And what about when you got older?

Were your wishes more grown-up versions of your childhood requests?  A baby of your own?  A shiny, new porsche?  Seasons tickets to the Blackhawks games?  Or were they completely different?  To meet the man (handsome prince) of your dreams?  For him to fall madly in love with you, and whisk you off in his ‘carriage’ (40-foot sailboat) to some far-away, island paradise?  To see the end of world hunger?  To be president of the United States?

What about now?  Do you wish on the first star you see in the sky?  “Star light, star light, first star I see tonight.  I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight.”  Do you throw coins into every fountain you pass, and then make a wish?  Have you ever seen the movie, “Three Coins in the Fountain”?  It was a romantic comedy, shot back in the fifties, about three American women who worked in Rome, where they all hoped to find love.  They made wishes, and tossed coins into the Fountain of Trevi.  Of course there were three happy endings.  It was the fifties!

(NOTE:  I am not THAT old.  I saw it years later, in one of its many repeat performances.  It was a classic.  I kid you not.)

When I went to Rome, needless to say I followed suit.  I had to.  Wouldn’t you?  So I was being a typical tourist.  So what?  I can’t remember what I wished for.  If it had come true, I’m sure I’d remember it.  Or I’d be living in Italy.  So guess what?

“Stugots!”  I got nothing.

But I digress.  So come on.  Be honest.  Do you still make wishes when you blow out the candles on your birthday cake?  Or are there so many of them, you’re afraid to set fire to your bangs?  Just joking … 

Tell me, if you stumbled upon a brass pot this afternoon, and a genie popped out and granted you three wishes, what would they be?

Think about it, for a minute, before you answer.

Have you ever heard the expression, “Be careful what you wish for”?  I was reminded of it when I read a post on Magnificent Nose the other day, written by Kathleen Ronan.  Over the years I’ve made lots of wishes that backfired on me.  Wishes I’d take back, if only I could.  A long, long time ago there was a certain someone who just rubbed me the wrong way.

Most of our dealings were very unpleasant; and sometimes, I must admit, I’d say to myself, “Boy, I wish I’d wake up and he’d be out of my life.  Off to torture someone else.”  A while later, when he died unexpectedly, I felt somewhat responsible.  Totally creeped me out.  I scared myself.  And to this day I wonder if I have magical powers.  But I’m too afraid to try them out.  I didn’t want him bugging me, but that was taking it way too far.

More recently, during this long, drawn out, miserably cold winter I wished, over and over again, for winter to end.  For warmer weather.  For summer.  For the past week or two it’s been in the high 20’s and low 30’s here.  That’s 86 degrees fahrenheit and hotter.  Plus it’s extremely humid.  With the humidity it’s more like 104!! With not even a light breeze.  With no end in sight.

Like I said, be careful what you wish for.

As for this heatwave I am keeping my mouth firmly shut.  Not saying a word.  I am sucking it up.  Thanking the Universe everyday.  NO wishes.  Absolutely none.  You know why, don’t ya?

If I’m not careful, I could wake up to a blizzard.