Turn On Your Heartlight

It was a big day at our house, and it wasn't just because it was Valentine's Day. I'd promised my husband that the Christmas tree would come down the day after the Super Bowl, and guess what: that turned out to be this day. (I also made a top-notch lasagna for our V-Day dinner that turned out nice and cheesy!)

However, there was one in our household who did NOT want the tree to come down. In fact, it was Tiny Tiger, and he took a position in the tree very early in the morning, from which he stood guard. He put on his butterfly/angel wings, and told me that his new name was Tiny "Butterfly" Tiger. "I can sit in this tree for 738 days if I have to!" announced that Tiger.

But all good things must come to an end, and so it was that the tree came down, but very slowly, and in the funnest way possible. You may see a picture of Tiny "Butterfly" Tiger in the extras, giving me some serious side-eye as he still guards the tree, even as it is going into its box. "Heck no, we won't go!" said that Tiger. It'll be all right, Tiny Tiger; Christmas will come again, but not yet. . . .

In other news, we had some cold weather that allowed for some fine frozen bubble making in the morning. I selected a few little things to take along out with me: a cat figure with a purple crystal, a flat round leaf, and a teasel, for that spiky look.

The Turn On Your Heartlight photo is above, featuring the cat with the crystal, and the morning sun shining through it (the cat is playing with a bubble, as cats do); the leaf is under that bubble to the right. You may see the teasel and its bubble in the extras as well; don't spiky things and crystal things go surprisingly well together? (And no, somehow those teasel spikes did NOT burst my bubble!)

My soundtrack song is this one, and oh my goodness, let me tell you about the summer of 1982, when it came out. I had just graduated from high school in May and was headed to Penn State that fall with a full-tuition scholarship. The movie E.T. came out, about an alien who comes to visit Earth, and then goes home.

In a separate but parallel path, I fell in love with an exchange student from Brazil, and we went to senior prom together (theme: "Dreams Beyond the Rainbow," favorite song: Journey's "Open Arms") and had my heart good and broken when he left me crying at the University Park airport later that summer. Oh, young love! This is the song that brings it all back: Neil Diamond, with Heartlight, which was inspired by the film E.T.

Turn on your heartlight
Let it shine wherever you go
Let it make a happy glow
For all the world to see
Turn on your heartlight
In the middle of a young boy's dream
Don't wake me up too soon
Gonna take a ride across the moon
You and me