Anyhoo...as I was preparing to make myself presentable to the world, I slid open the shower door to turn on the water.
A LADYBUG SAT AT THE ANGLE WHERE THE WALL MEETS THE CEILING!
I couldn't run out to get my phone, because I was ready to step in the shower. I wasn't getting dressed again. The living room shades were open, and I'd just had dealings with a man on the porch. It wasn't a normal day where I might throw caution to the wind and streak to the kitchen counter for my phone camera.
With every intention of getting a photo after my shower, I stepped inside. The ladybug didn't seem very active. The water wasn't splashing up on it. I shampooed and rinsed my lovely lady-mullet. As I closed my eyes and put my face under the spray, I put my right hand on the soap dish to keep my bearings. It's about shoulder height.
Face rinsed, I opened my eyes again, and saw that ladybug crawling on my right thumb! NO! That doesn't happen. Droplets of water ricocheted off my flesh. I didn't want that ladybug to get waterlogged. I moved my hand across, under the nozzle, near the wall, to let the ladybug crawl off by the door, high up on the shower wall.
It fell to the floor!
Oh my gosh! That just wouldn't do! I got the ladybug off the wet shower floor, and onto my finger. I slid the door open, and let it crawl onto the wallpaper about waist high. Whew! That was a close one!
When I got out of the shower, the ladybug was on the rug. I avoided it. Dried and dressed. And went for my phone. When I came back the ladybug was crawling off the rug and onto the dark green tile.
It had its fragile, see-through wings out, probably drying them. That's the pattern and glare from the glaze on the dark green ceramic tile, not flaky skin cells and creeping crud. I had every intention of setting that ladybug free on the front porch, once I combed my hair.
It was gone when I looked back.
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Yes, I know it's technically a beetle, not a bright red ladybug. It's what we have around here, and we always call them ladybugs.
Ladybugs are the symbol of good luck in Switzerland! They are so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I see one now, I think of my mom, who had a whole bunch of them in her house. I used to tease her about them, and started seeing them all the time right after she died. At home, in the car, at work, and even crawling on a baby's ear who was visiting with an older sibling at Parent's Night at school!
DeleteIt looks like a lady bug to me. I let some live in my house one time because of the poem, "Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home. Your house is on fire, and your children are home." I know, I know. But, they took over and would fly in a pot of soup, into freezer. So, I vacuumed up cups of them.
ReplyDeleteMy mom had them in the drop ceiling of her family room. If too many came out, she used the Dustbuster to suck them up, then let them go outside. She said they all went back up in the ceiling at night anyway, and didn't bother her, so she wouldn't call an exterminator.
DeleteBug, beetle, it's all the same to me. I guess she was just waiting there for you to turn the water on so she could "freshen up" too. Good thing you don't have boiling hot showers, she would have cooked.
ReplyDeleteYeah, even crawled down to the soap! I was in a panic over a possible drowning, can't imagine COOKING!
DeleteI hear some beetle type lady bugs bite. I've never had one bite me, so I believe they are all lady like and hence all are ladybugs.
ReplyDeletePS very embarrassing to have left off Seinfeld.
Some of them really stink, which is not very ladylike!
DeleteAs one of my students used to tell me, concerning various perceived mistakes: "I'm embarrassed for you."
Your neglect of Seinfeld is like ME singing the praises of Diet PEPSI! I forgive you. It was a temporary oversight.
I always think of you and your mom when I play the lady bug slots.
ReplyDeleteI need to seek out the ladybug slots. I've only seen them in Oklahoma. Played $20 in one, no luck!
DeleteI was looking through my pictures files yesterday, thinking what I could delete as no longer useful, and found a picture of a laundry room with a ladybug mobile in it.
ReplyDeleteI've obviously ensnared you into my wavelength!
DeleteThat was an invasive Asian lady bug. They multiply rapidly. They will bite.
ReplyDeleteWell, the polar ice caps are flooding the continents, discarded plastic is piling up around our ears, the coronavirus is leaving a stack of corpses, the sun is going to explode, plant-based burgers have been cooked in meat juices...and still I muddle on, finding joy in a surprise "ladybug," my effervescent personality spreading joy throughout The Blogosphere!
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