The Gift of Play

I was thinking about this when I did my morning walk today. It seems sometimes there are so few adults that really know how to play. I didn't learn how til my 20's since play was NOT allowed in our house. Fortunately I've been making up for it ever since.

Soon after I met Colleen, we were headed to lunch one day when she says to me "You gonna wear that to lunch? It's kind of attractive." I said "wear what to lunch? What are you talking about?" She points and I discover I had a dryer sheet clinging to my sweatshirt sleeve. I laughed, peeled it off and flung it at her. It fell between the seats (I thought) but somehow later I discovered it was stuck on her back. From there it took on a life of it's own that's still alive and well 13 years later as we have continued the tradition.

For a while the game was to surprise the other one with it by hiding it in the most creative place. She wouldn't tell me when she found it, she'd just re-hide it for me and vice versa. Our husbands were so intrigued by it all (they play well too) so they assisted us a few times. It became a way to say "I'm thinking of you" and "I love you." I've left them in coat pockets, suitcases, taped to mirrors, in her fridge and freezer, tied around the dogs collar, and around the statues in her yard, in the grocery bag, in the dog kennel, on the piano at church or tucked in her music before Mass.

It became the welcome home msg.-we'd tie one on the others mailbox so we'd see it when we drove up. We've wrapped presents in them. Once I put one in the kleenex box on the back of her toilet which she pulled out to blow her nose and goes "damn these are rough, I gotta find a new brand." Then she realized it was a dryer sheet. LOL My personal best was opening night (she does theatre) I sent flowers but I took a bunch of dryer sheets to the florist so they could weave them into the arrangement. It took Colleen a min. to figure out what these flowers were made of then she was ROTL. It was however quite difficult trying to explain the tradition to the rest of the cast but they loved her bizarre flower arrangement.

I've had dryer sheets mailed to me from all over the country, the Caribbean, and Mexico. I found one on our wedding cake. I've received them on every holiday and decorated accordingly-Christmas with red/green glitter, pumpkins for Halloween, stars and stripes for the 4th of July. There's been Happy Birthday dryer sheets, Happy Anniversary dryer sheets, and Happy Valentine's Day dryer sheets full of hearts. During bad times, Colleen would send a plain dryer sheet through the mail just to say she loved me.

I knew Colleen was doing the music for a funeral this a.m. so I tucked a dryer sheet in my pocket to leave on her car when I passed the funeral home on my walk. And so the tradition continues. I have no idea how many hundreds of dryer sheets we have passed over the last 13 years or how many we'll send over time, but this I know, whoever outlives the other can be assured a dryer sheet will accompany whoever leaves first for the next life.