New uses for old things.

I love Real Simple magazine. I love the stories and the recipes, but my favorite section is probably the one that involves repurposing old household items for new tasks. 

It is important to note that I do not like this section because I find it useful; quite the contrary, I find that most of the entries are more of the "look what I can do!" style.  Don't get me wrong, I've experienced the occasional "aha!" moment when perusing the section [i.e. using my hair straightener to iron little ruffles on a shirt, or get between buttons- brilliant!] Do I really need a list of 40 "new" things to do with aluminum foil? Of course not, but it's novel, and I appreciate the creativity however ridiculously misconstrued the suggestions may be, practically speaking.

So,  sometimes when they've used up all their best ideas, the Real Simple staff lets their readers contribute their own new uses for items, and I think I've got a real winner...

This is a mushroom.

On the surface it looks just like your basic decorative lawn ornament.  You'll find these sprinkled all over the grounds of our apartment complex. They don't look out of place because there is a huge, nice playground in the center of the area, and lots of benches and things to make it look quite parkish.

But these mushrooms have a secret....

To give you a sense of scale (and stealth- there's another hiding behind those bushes).

Imagine my surprise when on my way home one evening the air suddenly filled with classical music, seemingly out of nowhere.  No one else seemed to be concerned by the fact that a furious piano sonata was erupting from the bushes with no one there to claim it. 

"Oh, that's the mushrooms," my friend said, seeing my dismayed expression. "They act as speakers in the evenings to play music for the children."

So many questions....why do they only play in the evenings? Why paint something green with red dots if it's sitting in the grass anyway? How do they choose the music? Is there a committee? How can I overturn this committee and become the solo contributor to this project? [Already in my planner].  If the music is to calm the kids down in the evenings why were they playing Rachmaninoff last night?

It is not an exaggeration to say that these mushroom speakers are one of my absolute favorite things about being here. Well, the mushrooms- and the fact that it's socially acceptable to have a fridge that looks like this:

Oh yes, this is my actual refrigerator.

Now the acquiring of this fridge and the subsequent controversy that have come because of it in my own house could be a separate post unto themselves.  Joel detests the [looks of the] fridge. I happen to love it because...

a) It's hideous to a point that I think it's awesomely bad- the white paint sparkles.

b) It was on a super sale so we got a WAY bigger fridge for less money than we could have gotten a much smaller fridge of lower quality- the flowers were just a bonus.

c) The purchase experience of this fridge is a right of passage for me. I had to find my way to the store alone, shop and purchase it alone without any English speakers available to help me- I ended up finding a Vietnamese man who spoke French, so he translated my French into Chinese so that I could communicate with the saleslady.

d) When else in my life would I even be able to find something like this to laugh at, let alone keep in my house as my possession!

I won't judge you if you hate my fridge, by normal standards it is quite unappealing. But I happen to love it, and I hope you will try to learn to also.