Come Inside*
Who knows if they’re home, and honestly, if you could get away with it, would you care? I guess that’s the real question–would you enter the house, and if yes, how would you come inside?
Please don’t forget to rifle through their mailbox (comment section) below and see what messages people have sent before you go inside. And then return from time to time to place your own notes in the mailbox for future readers to find.
* You may encounter children or children’s items inside the house.
Thank Yous:
There are many people I need to thank in the construction of this piece beginning with Allison at Lunacy Web who did the coding and is available for other freelance projects. This project was made possible from a generous gift of time and ideas from the Ford Foundation. I would also like to thank the ChickieNob and Wolvog for their contributions.
114 comments
We bring back a Christmas ornament from the places we travel. Our tree is bursting with memories of years past.
we always bring a magnet back and put it on the fridge. our fridge is pretty full though!
We dont’ get out too much so there isn’t anything traditional that we seek out to bring back. Usually just a stack of photographs!
I do magnets too. I love my collection but my fridge does look a bit messy. Oh well!
And they lived happily ever after. . . .
We haven’t traveled a lot together yet, but we did make sure to bring back a Christmas tree ornament from New York. Other collections you would find? Not many, unless you count books. Oh, and if you were to come by at this time of year, you would be able to check out my collection of Nativity sets (to be the subject of a post sometime in December).
I am, actually, a mermaid!
(omg, this is SO MUCH FUN!!!)
The last picture I took was of the little girl I was babysitting this morning, as she grinned at me from the high chair while eating raisins. She didn’t want any pasta (“hot”), or carrots (they got thrown right into the trash), or turkey (it was spit out with a look of “how could you DO this to me???”). Just raisins.
I’m not really in the mood for tea.
“For hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”
I don’t feel uneasy or scared. Curious, maybe. Same as I’d feel in someone else’s house alone. If they didn’t want me there, they shouldn’t have told me to come in!
I like to bring back sand from places we go to, but only the first time.
I have a poetry book collection. Willow Trees. But mostly you’ll just find tons of pictures.
You helped with the laundry if you didn’t do all steps. Argued this one yesterday.
It’s ok with me if people read my journals after I’m gone. Might be odd before then, though.
Hope and Faith
The pink crayon never DID feel like it belonged, but it did its best to fit in anway. For the most part, the other things in the junk drawer didn’t accept it so much, but they did tolerate its presence.
The last picture was a picture of my children playing with my daughter’s birth brother.
that looks like fun – however, please could you also write down anything that is spoken cos I am deaf!! I could not understand what was being said behind door one. Thanks.
#9: “C’est le temps que tu a perdu pour ta rose qui fait ta rose si importante.” (It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.) from Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
I have loved that quote since childhood, but clearly there are infertility meanings you can draw.
I got to the key to your friend’s parent’s house room. It was unsettling. I will go to another room to see if it’s any better.
This room is much better. What you will see all over my house is art. Art and miscellaneous papers. And JD’s clothes. His unofficial motto: Where It Lays Is Where It Stays.
I’ve got no robots to offer and I’m a girl.
Do you still visit everyone on the blogroll? And everyone who visits the lushery? How about the L&F? If not, who do you not visit?
I used to collect little boxes, and would buy at least one wherever we went, but then they got to be too many and I didn’t have anywhere to put them where I could really look at them and enjoy them. I have a treasure-chest shaped box covered in sea shells from Cuba, a little wooden box with two drawers in it from New Zealand (I forget what kind of wood it is) – those are probably the most special ones to me. But mostly we collect books.
(Door #8) Oh, I am SUCH a snoop … I am ashamed to admit it (but not so ashamed I won’t admit it), but I LOVE to eavesdrop on other people’s conversations, and do so whenever possible. I always check out the medicine cabinet and cupboards under the sink in other people’s bathrooms, and I have been known to read other people’s journals (my sister’s and my cousin’s … though my canny sister knew me well enough to write everything in code). But I also have a tremendous dread of censure, so will also sit stiffly in someone else’s space afraid to touch anything if I think they’ll be coming home soon.
The little song about gravity (?) was a very performance-art-y moment in this house to me!
I also like how you are using the metaphor of a house with lots of rooms and doors, similar to the way you organized the blogroll.
Mmmmm – a nice, hot, steaming cup of rooibos please!
I forgot to leave a Door 1 question for you all…. Morning people or night owls?
The next day, Alice swore she was going to go out and buy some drawer organizers.
“Seymour once said to me – in a crosstown bus, of all places – that all legitimate religious study must lead to unlearning the differences, the illusory differences, between boys and girls, animals and stones, day and night, heat and cold.”
- J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey
I guess I am a decent yardstick to measure how far society has devolved…I read like crazy, and yet, I can only quote movies. Sigh. How sad. But, I remember there are some excellent lines in Life of Pi by Yann Martel.
My standard quote upon leaving the subdivision (or arriving at a destination) is “Crap, I forgot the camera.” The last picture I took was of my little one wearing her fairy wings – well, that’s the last one I downloaded, anyway – oh and some pictures for the tax file of things we donated.
I like to bring back particular objects for people. For my nephew, it was animals indigenous to the area I visited. For my niece, paintings. For me, cheesy, touristy crap like t-shirts, plastic wind-up crabs, and when I smoked, lighters.
BTW, I love exploring other people’s houses!
Look at that…I answered Door 8, before I even got there. I have always been someone who sort of lives vicariously through others. I learn from their actions and reactions. So I love to explore surroundings, see possessions, ponder their meanings. Loads of fun!
I knew the two of them were conspiring against me, but now I have proof! My husband is consistently rearranging (or should I say de-arranging) the utensil drawer, and he’s enlisted the help of our daughter. The crayon proves it!
goodnight, I am a dullard. I loaded this post several times and couldn’t figure anything out. Now I’ve actually sort of figured it out and I need to go to sleep.
I would actually love some hot tea right now, with some sweetener. It normally soothes me and helps to set the emotions aside for a later time… but now all it can do is quiet my heart for a short while.. until the cup runs empty. Hey, I will take what I can get- and man, I so need some tea right now.
What a great idea
I collect rocks. Normal rocks, extraordinary rocks, black, white, brown and gray rocks. Round rocks and square rocks. Smooth rocks and rough ones. And every time I pick one up in my house I remember where I found it, what we did, how I felt that day, what smells and sounds surrounded me and what kind of weather we had.
Door three hides that special drawer we all have in our kitchen/bedroom/bathroom. The JUNK DRAWER filled with forgotten treasures.
I am starting to collect “found objects” for the boys. I am homeschooling Montessori-style. I’d love some of my SITSas to help out… nothing sharp as they are only 20 mos old.
The door is beautiful. As Aldous Huxley put it, “If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern”
That is one beautiful door…
Happy Tuesday!
Ever since we were on our honeymoon almost 12 years ago, when we travel, we bring back shot glasses. It’s a tacky collection, not well displayed in our home. In fact, all of the shot glasses are kept in a big Rubbermaid container above our fridge. But, they hold significance to us. Even if we fail to admire them on a regular basis.
The magical junk drawer was full of wonderful surprises. Lost memories of spaghetti and rice, peeling potatoes and carrots, dicing dinners that warmed the soul and preparing breakfasts that perked the heart. Except, alas, it’s fatal flaw- there was no spatula to flip the french toast
“I knew who I was when I woke up this morning- but I think I must have changed several times since then.” — Lewis Carrol, from “Alice in Wonderland”
It’s one of my favorite books… there are a few. But this quote is really one of my favorite quotes. I think it’s amazing how much we change as we grow, and how we can wake up as one person, but by the end of the day- through follies and epiphanies, experiences and observances- we can be someone else entirely.
Door 4… I have no idea what was being said! It sounded like “octopuses defying gravity” LOL. I am confused.
I would totally give you all a robot- if I only knew how to make one safely. It’s a shame.
I do not live in the ocean, sadly. Because I am no longer a mermaid. All for the best I suppose.
LOL
I do carry a camera with me, I made sure my phone has a decent one and sometimes I carry my digital camera with me… if I think I’ll find something special that day.
The last picture on my camera… is actually a picture of myself and my little brother.
And we’re both smiling.
I’ve been keeping journals for years… many are boxed in the attic. I’ve seriously considered this, and on one hand I think it would be fine if someone read them… on the other hand though, I’d rather they die with me- so I’ve asked my husband to burn them when I’m gone. He might sneak and read them first… but I think it’s okay, as long as he burns them afterwards.
I have never argued that point… never actually thought of it! Ummm… in our house, it is the act of doing and not the act of completion that makes it so. Doing the laundry involves gathering, washing, drying, and that’s it. Laundry is done, then we put it away.
I used to think I was a mermaid, but I’ve never lived in the ocean. I was a swimming pool and bathtub mermaid.
Sweetened or unsweetened tea?
Obviously I have rifled through the drawers and invaded the space. In life I wouldn’t so something like that, lol. I would be scared to touch anything, uneasy with being there, and anxious to go home. The feeling of not belonging would grow.
Of course, I also have this anxiety of someone coming to my house and rifling through my stuff. Not that there’s skeletons in my closet, but because this is my safe place. The place where I don’t have to hide anything, where I can proudly display my beliefs and enjoy my quirks. I have a room in my house that not even my husband is allowed to touch- again, not because there’s anything to hide, but because it is sacred. I bear my entire soul in there, it’s my library/art room. He is allowed in the room to see, but not to touch or move things or rifle.
I consider the laundry done once it comes off the line and makes it into the basket (I try to be good and fold it as I take it down from the clothes line). Managing to get it into drawers and closets is just a bonus.
I love to bring back purses from the different places we have visited.
I think this is cool and look forward to poking around!
Door # 3
Everything you need. Exactly where you need it.
Door # 2
I love taking pictures.
The last pictures I took were on Friday. They were of our two 8 week old kittens that we adopted on Thanksgiving and of our 5 year old cat that adopted us 4 years ago.
Door #3 “Honey? Where’s the…the…thingy? You know for scooping out the melon? Yeah, that’s it! Where is that? Gawd, this place is such a pigsty! Don’t You DO anything all day while I’m at work?”
Just so you know, to those of us (OK, me) that don’t like hot drinks, that totally sounds like my toilet filling.
Can I have a Coke, instead? Or if I have to have a warm drink, I’ll take hot chocolate!
Memories and photographs. Things that make me think – I enjoyed that, or that was amazing.
Door #7
I’m not a mermaid, and I fear that robots will eventually take over the earth. Then I’ll have to go and live in the ocean….or maybe I’ll be a bird instead of a girl!
Door 9: “The mistakes I’ve made are dead to me. But I can’t take back the things I never did.” — Jonathan Safran Foer, “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”
I’m not sure if I’d return in real life (although I will here); I always find myself uneasy in other’s homes when no one is there… Something about the tie to the fact that it would make me uneasy to have someone in my home without being there with them.
I always have a camera with me. The last picture I took was just this morning when my 15 month old climbed into the chair next to his big brother and gave him a kiss. Times like that make the wait and pain of the whole adoption process disappear.
I’m a fan of photos of eachother doing fun things on our travels – occasionally we do choose trinkets or magnets, but my favorite thing is looking back through the photos remembering the fun!
Door 3 – The Drawer.
This is a classic kitchen cook’s tools drawer; I see the kids have begun to make it their own. The cook, who often hurriedly reaches for tools as they are needed, has lifted spirits when she sees remnants of her cherished children in the drawer.
I had a larger tendency to carry my camera with me prior to getting a phone with a high-quality camera. I do still use it a ton to snap quick photos. The last picture I took was of our dog – sprawled out on the rug by the front door, covered in toys, snoring like a chainsaw!
Unfortunately, I’m not a mermaid nor do I live in the ocean. I’d like to be a burger girl, but alas I’m not that either. Sadly, due to the lack of funds this year, I won’t be able to purchase robots for anyone either… sorry!
Ha – Door 4 was great – althought it took me a few times to get “octopusses and gravity”… it made me laugh out loud!
Mine are: uncertainty and fun.
Of course I’d love to join you for a tea party! I’m sure we’ll have much to discuss, mostly who all of these people are in your house !
Ah, my journals (a.k.a. my blog) – I’d love for my loved ones to read it after I’m gone – for them to know the struggles we’ve had as well as the wonderful successes. To know how I dealt with (or didn’t deal with) life’s various situations and hopefully to learn from my mistakes.
Not necessarily my favorite, but the one that came to mind is:
“I’m not a bit changed–not really. I’m only just pruned down and branched out. The real ME–back here–is just the same.” (from Anne of Green Gables)
Door 5: I have thought about this alot recently. I have stacks and stacks of old journals and I would be worried about what my (yet to be concieved) children thought of my being engaged before I met my hubby. It was a brutal and wild relationship. I don’t quite know if I want them to know all the sorid details of that relationship. And let me tell you I documented everything!! I don’t want to throw them away though. So right now they sit in a storage bin in my basement.
The closest I have to a journel is my blog and I would like it if they still existed when I’m gone. No worries about the reading part because they’re public.
Door 3 is a lot like different places in my house, full of important things, but God I need to clean it up and make it look Nice.
Door 7: love those starfish, look just like something I would bring home from my travels..in fact they are. I bring home magnets and shells and trinkets. I keep them close to me in bedrooms , bathrooms, places I look at often so I can remember what it was like to be in that warm sunny comfortable place.
Um, I am NOT a mermaid, but I think in another life I was. (a non motion sick mermaid!) I’d love to think I could be magical like that.
I would buy you a robot for sure, one for each of you. I am not a robot (although sometimes I feel like one) because I cry too easily.
I took photos last night of our Christmas lights on our house. They came out fuzzy but that didn’t stop me from uploading them to FB for the family to see…
The last photo on my camera is of my friend’s 9 month old on a swing, done up in winter clothes. My photography is poor but she is beautiful and is waving her arms for joy.
I would like to say that I’m a mermaid that lives in the ocean with the wings of a bird. In fact I’m a girl that lives on the other side of the ocean (in the UK) who lavishes time and money on my garden birds because they are precious to me and I love them.
From my travels I bring back photographs and, most importantly for me, favourite moments. I immerse myself in these to help me sleep when things are hard, strangely all of these moments are from my travels.
I bring nothing back but photographs from my travels. I already have enough knick knacks that I refuse to dust.
We always bring back a cool magnet from each place we visit … although we’re starting to run out of space on the fridge!!
door 10: milk, please!
The Art of Racing in the Rain
I usually but not always have a camera with me. The last picture I took was of a book cover.
Folding? Ha! Honey, folding laundry is for those who have the luxury of in-home laundry facilities. When you’re doing three weeks of laundry at a time and people are waiting for the limited seating and table space, taking the time to fold will get you sneered at at best. I ball it up in the hampers I used to bring it in and take it home. By then it’s wrinkled anyway, so I see no need to take the time to fold it.
My phone is my camera ever since I lost the battery charger for my proper camera. The last picture I took was of the pizza we made for dinner tonight. Mmm, homemade pizza!
I carry my cell phone every where and it has a camera. I love that feature because I can take pictures at any time when most people do not have a camera available.
Oh and the last picture I took was of my nephews laughing really hard!
I love to bring pictures back from my travels. Lots and lots of pictures. I wouldn’t even call myself an amateur photographer, because even they have an idea of what they are doing. I just point and shoot. My favorite is squirrels. I consider it such an honor when a squirrel will stop and pose for me for a brief few seconds. I have pictures of squirrels from almost every place I’ve traveled!
Very cool! (It does make much more sense when you click on the door knob first!) Moving on to the rest of the doors…
Door #10…Sure, I’d love to join for tea! That recording is a bit unnerving, and even creepy, until the end!
Door #9…Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is the book I would undoubtedly quote from. Wish I had it handy…so many good parables there!
Door #1….Not a mermaid, but I think I’d love that free feeling of swimming through the ocean. I’d also love to play robots!
Door #1….Oh, what’s the deal with “burger girl?”
Door #4….Had to laugh at “octupuses and gravity!” Gravity ocurred to me pretty quickly, but octupuses took some effort!
My two words: time and patience
Door #7…Honestly, I bring back random crap from my trips! Sometimes it’s a map…other times magnets…other times Christmas ornaments…t-shirts and sweatshirts are good, too!
Door #3…That looks like the kitchen junk drawer! We have one of those, too. A little bit of everything finds its way there!
I like to eat and cook, so when I travel I like to pick up a local cookbook or local food that reminds me of the place, or try a new recipe (as long as it does not get me in trouble with the US Customs!
Door #10: Sure I’ll have some tea! I like Japanese green tea with toasted brown rice!
You didn’t totally do the laundry if it is still in the dryer, but judging from the pile of clothes on my dresser, out of which I’ve been pulling 90% of my clothes for the past month and onto which newly done laundry gets stacked, it doesn’t need to make it all the way into the drawers and closets to qualify as done.
Damn. I’ve done this wrong. I was supposed to comment before exploring. Um.
I bring back photos, fabrics, and memories.
Yes, obviously.
Around The World in Eighty Days is not great for one-liners, so instead I’ll give you, “The ships hung in the sky, in much the same way as bricks don’t”.
And…
No, no, and – sorry – no.
Yes, but I always forget to use it.
Sure, why not? Although I’m a little disappointed to find out it’s not a road trip.
Once the laundry is clean, it is done. The rest is called “putting away the clothes”.
Tough choice. Probably I would like someone to read them, but who?
This is the place of useful things, or at least useful things this year, or since the last spring clean. Another time, it was full of bills and postage stamps, intermingled with telephone numbers scrawled on crumpled post-it notes, plus some faded bags of herbal tea. After the next cleanout, who knows?
And… then… nothing.
Bea
My cell phone has a camera, so I almost always have one with me. I do wonder, though, if some people are just wired differently. I don’t think about taking pictures nearly as often as I should. For example, Hubby’s family was all at our house for Thanksgiving and we didn’t even think to get a picture of all of us! We have good friends who never leave without a new picture! Strange how that works…
The closest thing I have to a journal is my blog. So, I guess I’m kind of an open book. Most people would be more than welcome to read it. But, there are a few people who I’d hate to read it after I was gone without me there to put it into context. Perhaps it would help them understand even without the context, though. After all, they should already understand the context…
Well, if “doing laundry” only counts when the clothes have been successfully put away, than we don’t “do laundry” very often in our house! I can wash and dry clothes all the time without a problem, but folding and putting them away is like my arch nemesis. It’s amazing how fast the clothes pile up…and it’s just the two of us!!
I don’t normally carry a camera, but I always have my iPhone w/me that has a camera
We bring back a collector spoon from our travels–love them!
- from the Institute for Stork Research and Science
Two different theories exist concerning the origin of children: the theory of Sexual reproduction, and the theory of the stork. Many people believe in the theory of sexual reproduction because they have been taught this theory at school. In reality, however, many of the world’s leading scientists are in favor of the theory of the stork. If the theory of sexual reproduction is taught in schools, it must only be taught as a theory and not as the truth. Alternative theories, such as the theory of the stork, must also be taught.
Evidence supporting the theory of the stork includes the following:
1. It is a scientifically established fact that the stork does exist. This can be confirmed by every ornithologist.
2. The alleged human fetal development contains several features that the theory of sexual reproduction is unable to explain.
3. The theory of sexual reproduction implies that a child is approximately nine months old at birth. This is an absurd claim. Everyone knows that a newborn child is newborn.
4. According to the theory of sexual reproduction, children are a result of sexual intercourse. There are, however, several well documented cases where sexual intercourse has not led to the birth of a child.
5. Statistical studies in the Netherlands have indicated a positive correlation between the birth rate and the number of storks. Both are decreasing.
6. The theory of the stork can be investigated by rigorous scientific methods. The only assumption involved is that children are delivered by the stork.
Door #7 – We always purchase Christmas tree ornaments in every new city/town/country we visit.
Octupuses and gravity? I would think that Octopi dont know about gravity……
Yep – I’d rifle. More to experiment with the idea of the performance art aspect of blogging than anything else – I think. Although maybe I am voyeuristic…
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” I love the sarcasm!
Door #9…”Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again” from the book, Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier
Door #2–the last picture I took was of a BMW at the airport in Munich. My husband and I were there on a layover, and it’s one of the nicest airports I’ve been in.
We bring back food from our travels – coffee, Spanish ham, dulce de leche, Niknak chips, marmite, sauces, black beans, unusual stuff I want to try.
And the laundry, as long as it’s dry I consider it done. Which probably explains why my spare room is full of clothes on the bed.
Leave a Comment