Guest Post from Beth of I Didn’t Have My Glasses On, on Unexpected Treasures

photo credit: icedsoul photography .:teymur madjderey via photopin cc

This NFL season, I noticed something strange.

The Carolina Panthers, apparently, moved the press box farther away from the scoreboard on the other end of Bank of America Stadium. Or, did they move the scoreboard farther away? Whatever. Talk about inconvenience.

I had to squint to see PANTHERS 7, BEARS 0 after a Brandon Lafell touchdown early in their first preseason game. Turns out, I need glasses. I’m not alone.

Today’s guest poster, Beth, writes a post called I didn’t have my glasses on, a blurry-eyed look at life as a mom, teacher and cupcake maker. I can relate. Well, mostly to the blurry vision and cupcakes.

She goes through life with fingers crossed and eternal optimism. Not bad weapons for battle. 

Today, she tells us about an adventure that fell into her family’s laps for a ‘josh tour’ that yielded unexpected treasures.

And aren’t those the best ones, the unexpected?

So until my new glasses come in at Wal-mart … here’s squinting at you, Beth.

And forgiving you for that ridiculous hockey team you support.

# # #

with time on our hands, and a long, breezy, late fall day ahead, two of my daughters, one of my sons-in-law, and i, headed out for a walk downtown. while browsing through the shops, we found a cool comic book, hand-drawn by a local artist, ‘josh.’ it looked interesting, and wanting to support the art community, we bought it , and without thinking much more about it, continued on around town. when we stopped for coffee, and looked more carefully at the comic book, we discovered that josh had written his own tour of our city on the back page. it took all of 30 seconds for us to decide to follow his map and take ‘josh’s tour’ of the city. while we weren’t dressed for a long hike, it didn’t matter, we had to embrace this adventure that was dropped right into our laps. it was exciting, like discovering a lost treasure map, not knowing where it would lead us, or what, and if, we would find anything, in the end. the tour began by leading us just a block off of main street, with a walk through an alley, to look for a group of words written on a graffiti wall, then it was on to a stroll over painted footprints, a walk up an old stairway, over city hall, where we found picnic tables and astro turf, down railroad tracks, across parking structures, behind shops, and lost trails, and on and on – over and under, behind, around, next to, and in all kinds of places we’d been so near, so many times, but had never really seen. the wind picked up speed, and the temperature took a dip, but time passed quickly, and before we knew it, hours had gone by. we discovered so many hidden details of the city, and little off the beaten path places on this day’s adventure, and it was amazing. at the end of the tour, we found ourselves below a viaduct, covered with artwork, down through some trees, and behind the hospital. we were standing near a little blue tent, tucked away in these quiet woods, on a spot not far from the river, and it looked lived-in and somehow settled. we turned to each other, thinking, this must be where josh lives. as we made our way home again, and walked back through the city, tired, but exhilarated, we knew we would never see it in quite the same way again.