The Picture

I have a very good friend who lives back East. She would do anything for me, I think, and on several occasions has come out here to spend just a weekend with me and lift my spirits. Last year was one such weekend. We were going to spend the whole time doing girl stuff - eating, drinking and shopping! Carole Sue and I spent one whole day in Cambria and it was beautiful! We totally played tourists. The highlight of the day had to be the first little shop we stopped in. We had parked our car, crossed the street and were just beginning to walk down Cambria's main street. We were approaching a very small A-frame building. There was a man sitting out front and he had some sort of pipe in his hands. I thought he was a plumber working on the building. As we drew near, he beckoned us inside. It turned out that he was an artist and the little shop was filled with very large and unusual pieces of art.  Ricardo proceeded to tell us his life story. He was so excited to have visitors. He spoke of the "universe" and "energy" and "destiny" and we all chatted happily as we examined his work. He did have some amazing pieces but none were smaller than a dishwasher or cheaper than a Mexican cruise. Finally, however, we discovered that he had a box filled with small prints of some of his work. By this time we were all friends and Carole Sue was anxious to spend just a little money, especially since Ricardo was so pleased to have company. Carole Sue decided that she would buy us each a print to commemorate our trip and she encouraged me to pick one out. She chose a very simple one that had a single flower in the center but I was drawn to more colorful prints. I finally picked one out that had lots of golds, brown, green, blue and red all over it.

"You sure that's the one you want?" I assured Carole Sue that I was happy with my choice. Hers seemed a little too sedate for me. Ricardo told me that he had titled my print "Casino" and he signed it for me. "This is the one you want?" I really didn't know what was the matter with Carole Sue. It was a simple 5 x 7 print. Anyway, Ricardo was so pleased with our purchases that he offered to get in our car with us and show us where we could get our pictures professionally framed. We politely declined and eventually went on our way.

When we were out of earshot of Ricardo, Carole Sue again questioned my selection. "I love it!" I was emphatic. To which she replied, "You do know it's a picture of women's private parts, don't you?"

What? Uh oh. I took a closer look. Sure enough, it appeared that I had picked out a somewhat abstract rendition of lots of female torsos. The truth of the matter, though, was that I didn't care. I still liked it. But I felt I had to give Carole Sue a hard time. "Do you mean to tell me that you knew all along but you still let your good friend buy a picture of va-jay-jays?" Carole Sue was aghast! "Don't say that word!" (My youngest daughter teaches me slang. I am so hip.) Anyway, the shock value was awesome and I spent the rest of the day goading her about it. We laughed ourselves silly over the whole thing. I told her that in memory of our awesome weekend I was going to frame my print and hang it some place where I could see it often. And that's exactly what I did. I hung it in my bedroom and every time I look at it I laugh a little and remember two old friends having the time of their lives.