Flamingo Love

The thing about me is that I love flamingos.

I am guilty of latching onto specific  animals for decorative purposes, which I am convinced is some sort of psychological disorder. When I was young it was giraffes.  Then I loved frogs (this was pregnancy induced), followed by owls (my husband and I have argued about this being a trend.  He does not believe that owls are trendy) and now... it's flamingos.

I always feel sorry for people when this happens with dairy cows.  Have you ever gone into someones house and they just had cows everywhere?  Cow statues and cow clocks and cow blankets and fancy plates  mounted on the wall with farm scenes and cow mugs and little art pieces in the kitchen that have cows and say things like, "Mama says to drink your milk," or "Moooooooooooooooove over and make way for butter and cheese," or "don't have a cow, man."

But as it turns out, I am not superior to a cow person.

This year on Lila's Safari West field trip I fell completely in love with the flamingos.  I could have stood there watching them all day.  I love their skinny legs and their long twisty necks and their over sized beaks.  They are just the cutest.  And, of course, it doesn't hurt that they are pink!  I find myself admiring pictures of flamingos in the morning as I sip on my coffee and it really helps to start the day off right!  I keep telling Jay that flamingos are the new owl, but he just doesn't believe me (because, of course, he does not believe that people widely love and admire owls).

So, when you come to my house in the future, don't be surprised to find a lawn decorated with plastic flamingos and to walk into scenes from Miami and homemade paintings of flamingos and probably some sort of life-sized flamingo statue in every room.  And don't be shocked to find that everything is pink and to see that we keep our mail in the flamingo beak of a hand-blown glass flamingo sculpture and that my tea kettle is shaped like a flamingo (minus the legs) and that I have dressed both of my children up as flamingos for Halloween (even though their costumes really just make them look like Vegas showgirls) and have a dramatic professional portrait on a giant canvas of them in their costumes hung above the tv in my living room.

I can not help myself.

I am a sick woman.