Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Surprises

So, today's post is about surprises. The first one is--I posted. Yup. Surprise!

As you may have noticed I took a month off due to blog fatigue. But I'm feeling rested now and will be posting more. Yay.

And on to the rest of the post...

Kid A, hubby, and I went to a local high school's play this last week. They're doing Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.



It was really good. They had a huge cast that even involved several local elementary schools' choirs and part of a junior high cast as well. See, huge. I'd never seen the play and sat laughing and tapping my feet to the music when an additional cast member walked on stage.

Who was this cast member you ask?

Only a real live camel!

One Hump Camel
One Hump Camel - Images - Pictures

Yes! A giant dromedary walked out on stage with all the kids. It towered over them while sauntering around the set!

As you might be able to see by my prolific use of exclamation marks, I was amazed! I was thrilled! I clapped! I laughed out loud! (I may have even squealed. But don't tell anyone. Shhh.)

But why was I surprised? It's not like I've never seen a camel before. I've been to the zoo loads of times. I've watched nature shows on TV. I have google. It's not like it was a new creature that the gods spawned right before my eyes, but here's the thing--I didn't expect a camel to walk out on stage. I was surprised. And it pushed an already good show over the top to amazing for me.

And it made me think about books. Ha! I bet you're surprised...or not. But, think about your favorite books. Don't they all have some kind of surprise in them? Some twist you didn't expect that took your mind and held it captive for a moment or two? All my favorites do.

I'm participating in Nano this year, which is kind of a surprise to me, but as I write today, I'm going to keep camels in mind. And I'm going to try to write one into my story--not an actual camel, but the whole idea of a camel surprise.

How about you, are you going to spring a camel on anyone today? You should because the world needs more camels. Just saying. *wink*

9 comments:

Jenilyn Collings said...

What I want to know is where did they get the camel? Does someone have one that they rent out?

My strangest experience with a camel was seeing one stopped at a red light at an intersection in Jerusalem. It was just so out of place on that busy street! But at least it was obeying the traffic rules, I guess.

Hermana Maw said...

I want to know where they got him, too! And I really want to see a camel stopped at a red light. Soooo jealous!

Jonene Ficklin said...

A camel?? Really? Now that's a show-stopper, ha ha. (I hope Joseph was really dynamic.) And talk about creative thinking . . . there is now a new writerly word in your honor. (Who needs to name a star when you can name a new writing concept?)I'm going to go a write a 'camel' into my story today. Thanks for the whole new vein of thinking!

Amie said...

How cool. I want to see a play with a camel!

I think the trick with camels is they need to fit in, even when they are surprising. You can't just throw a camel into anything and have it work.

Cherie said...

I don't think I should spring any camels today. They would probably be grumpy, unpleasant camels.

Julie Daines said...

Sounds like a good production. Joseph is one of our family favorites. Good luck with NaNo! I'm doing it too!

Nikki Mantyla said...

Leisha, we've missed you! Thanks for returning. And I love the camel analogy. I was just thinking about that this week, so what a timely post! I was thinking in terms of needing more twists in my stories, but I like thinking I need more camels instead. ;)

Hermana Maw said...

Jonene, really! Isn't that so cool?

Amie, you mean I can't just write a camel into space or something like that? I can see it now, Camels walking the halls of space stations...Okay, you may have a point. he he he

Cherie, camels may just lighten the mood, unless they step on people when they're grumpy. And in that case...

Julie, we should hook up at the NaNo website and be writing buddies! I hope your NaNo is going great!

Nikki, ahhh thanks. You always know how to make me feel loved. Hugs.

Irene B. Gardner said...

WOW!!! Notice my overuse of the exclamation points, too? Fantastic Blog. The rest did you good, not that your blogs aren't always terrific. I'm just saying ...

I'm going to have to share this blog with my friend whose alter-ego is a camel. Seriously.

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