Scenes From A Sofa

[CharleyH]

I really must copyright this title for some sort of novel, although it's much less sexual a thread than one might imagine (sadly for me - lol - LAUREN!). As some know, I am sofa hopping until they let me back into Europe (crossing fingers for an end of July departure). I have done this once before and many others have hopped my sofa over the years so there are plenty of tales to tell and write about.

Question: What are your sofa hopping or sofa lending experiences, good or bad?

Anyhow, despite that I come off as a cruel and unusual person with little compassion, I'm not, but won't go into details lest it ruin my nearly impeccable reputation for coldness (lol- amongst other things, but shut up because those "other" things are not relevant right now - lol ).

There I was happily posting to Lit the other night, to Ami's medical thread in fact (a topic I am quite knowledgeable on), when I began noticing the "little" things around me. I've only lived on this sofa for a short while, but I am familiar enough with the surroundings. As I was posting and looking up from the sofa, I began to get distracted by things that just did not seem particularly 'right'.

My Rubermaid boxes (4 of them ready to ship) were not where I left them and I wondered why they would have been moved. Went back to typing and looked back at them because they weren't moved so much as they seemed displaced.

I got up to get a drink (I like to have a drink or two as many of us do after a long day) only to notice that any alcohol I may have bought had vanished, well, the bottles were still there but quite empty and I could have sworn I had just bought them, but who knows, maybe when my friend came over we had too much, although I really did not think so and was damn sure of it. I chalked it up to the fact that my sofa-lending friend had had some other friends over while I was away and that thought was all cool.

Still, when I went to get a drink there was a knife on the kitchen counter, and all I thought was that it looked like someone had cut into a chocolate mousse cake and I went back to responding to Lit. Yet, something was bothering me. I couldn't quite understand why there was no plate in the sink or why the knife had been partially wrapped in a paper towel and so I got up and checked the fridge, but no chocolate mousse cake around. Back to Lit.

The knife seemed odd, and so I checked the recycling, but no boxes and the recycling was full and I was wondering why the apartment was eerily silent and why also the shoes at the top of the stairs (normally aligned) were all over the place. I kind of yelled out, "hello?" just in case someone was home. No one answered and so I smoked a ciggy and went back to Lit. I did not look at the floor for some reason.

Still, something was eating at me, so I sent off my response and read some threads and maybe even posted, but by that time my mind was racing and trying to reason, 'why this and why that'. I soon discovered the why of the matter and all is well now (I am guessing for the moment).

I don't have a personal question to ask, or even a author question to ask (although what I have said could apply to setting, so feel free), but I do have a query about seeing what's in our face. I have always loved a John Berger book called "Ways of Seeing," and one of my favourite sayings to friends or anyone is "don't just look at it, see it." (fine example I am - lol)

Question: Why does it take us so long to see? I mean I looked - I obviously looked a lot, but I didn't immediately realize what I was seeing. I am interested in whether or not you have you ever had an experience where you looked, but did not see the obvious right away, even though all the signs were there.

Note: My recounting is one thing, yet this question also applies to being in a bar (for example) and a friend hits you saying "Hey ... that chick/dude is staring at you."

 

[hmmnmm]

Oh the Sofa Stories! Many best left untold. Excellent idea nonetheless.
These will come on the heels of All the Times I Almost Got Laid, someday, maybe.

 

[BlackShanglan]

All I can think of is John Malkovich as the Vicomte de Valmonte - "This, if memory serves, rather purgatorial sofa ..."

Good to see you, Charley. I'd never mistake you for cold or cruel.

 

[CharleyH]

Oh the Sofa Stories! Many best left untold. Excellent idea nonetheless.
These will come on the heels of All the Times I Almost Got Laid, someday, maybe.

We are listening to the stories left told, sort of. The other question was when do you look, but not see the "SIGNS". AKA: that question also applied to being in a bar (for example) and a friend hits you saying "Hey ... that chick/dude is staring at you."

 

[Carnevil9]

I really must copyright this title for some sort of novel,.....

It sounds like a great idea for a novel but, unfortunately, titles are not copyrightable, if I remember my schooling correctly. Best just keep it under wraps until you use it!.....Carney

 

[CharleyH]

All I can think of is John Malkovich as the Vicomte de Valmonte - "This, if memory serves, rather purgatorial sofa ..."

Good to see you, Charley. I'd never mistake you for cold or cruel.

Damnit, Shang!

Yet, what is the difference between "looking" and "seeing" in your eyes?

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Question: Why does it take us so long to see? I mean I looked - I obviously looked a lot, but I didn't immediately realize what I was seeing. I am interested in whether or not you have you ever had an experience where you looked, but did not see the obvious right away, even though all the signs were there.

Note: My recounting is one thing, yet this question also applies to being in a bar (for example) and a friend hits you saying "Hey ... that chick/dude is staring at you."

I'm guessing that the problem is when we're in a familiar context, a setting or a person that we know too well, with situations that our brains have grown accustomed to expect. And when we find ourselves immersed in that familiar context, even though we'll immediately notice the surface of change, we might have trouble making the leap right away to the situation that could have motivated those surface changes, if it's something so completely out of character (for the setting or person).

As for the "don't just look at it, see it" thing, it's easy to say. I know someone else who used to say "the better you look, the more you see." Different context. You look amazing, though.

 

[CharleyH]

I'm guessing that the problem is when we're in a familiar context, a setting or a person that we know too well, with situations that our brains have grown accustomed to expect. And when we find ourselves immersed in that familiar context, even though we'll immediately notice the surface of change, we might have trouble making the leap right away to the situation that could have motivated those surface changes, if it's something so completely out of character (for the setting or person).

As for the "don't just look at it, see it" thing, it's easy to say. I know someone else who used to say "the better you look, the more you see." Different context. You look amazing, though.

Well, you are sweet, love and we get eachother. Actually, and you know, it was a real scenario, and I am very curious about what - in reality - people look at but do not see. It's important to me right now. I must admit.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Damnit, Shang!

Yet, what is the difference between "looking" and "seeing" in your eyes?

I'm a terrible horse to ask. Every time I read Holmes telling Watson "You see, Watson, but you do not observe," I blush with embarassment. If you asked me now how many windows were on the front of the house I have lived in for six years now, or what the name of the road I turned onto every day to go to work might be, I would have no way to answer you.

I suppose that I would say that "looking" is running one's gaze over things. "Observing" is noting details carefully and giving each a share of attention rather than just taking it all in as a sort of general wash. And "seeing" would be assembling the facts obtained through looking in some meaningful way, or engaging mentally with what is seen.

Feel free to tear that to pieces. I will look upon, observe, see, or watch the process just as you like.

 

[carsonshepherd]

I'm dying to know what happened to the cake.

 

[CharleyH]

I'm dying to know what happened to the cake.

lol - I could be cruel right now, and say I let him eat it, but I won't be ... Okay I just was cruel .

Sorry, I don't tell much, C. My whole point in telling parts was ... we look but do not see. I am interested in that. I am interested in why we don't see things that are so obvious.

Shang? Hm, never considered the "observing" part of the equation as you suggest as a second step between looking and seeing. I always thought that seeing implied observing?

Still, I am in a mode of thought about why - when all the signs are staring us in the face - signs of people thinking us attractive, signs of trouble, signs of love, signs of suicide and other things - why do we just not see THE signs?

 

[damppanties]

Still, I am in a mode of thought about why - when all the signs are staring us in the face - signs of people thinking us attractive, signs of trouble, signs of love, signs of suicide and other things - why do we just not see THE signs?

Ok, perhaps we aren't really thinking, as in, not doing something with the information that our eyes see and processing it to come out with the 'obvious'. There's just no 'connect' happening because we're not paying attention. Who really looks for signs in everyday life? With Shang's Holmes example, I kept thinking Holmes notices things because he's supposed to. Thats' what he does. I don't think normal people notice things all that much all the time. There are just too many distractions and you're just not concentrating on reading the signs.

On a higher level, concerning suicide / trouble, perhaps a part of us doesn't want to see the obvious. We see what we want to see.

Now, what happened to the cake?

 

[cloudy]

:Still, I am in a mode of thought about why - when all the signs are staring us in the face - signs of people thinking us attractive, signs of trouble, signs of love, signs of suicide and other things - why do we just not see THE signs?

Thinking about this, it occurs to me that if we actually saw everything around us all the time, instead of letting our minds sort of fill in the blanks with what it already known, it would result in sensory overload. I can only be hyper-aware for short lengths of time, or I become mentally fatigued.

 

[hmmnmm]

We are listening to the stories left told, sort of. The other question was when do you look, but not see the "SIGNS". AKA: that question also applied to being in a bar (for example) and a friend hits you saying "Hey ... that chick/dude is staring at you."

Now that my memory reaches back - it was going to be a series, but 'couch' instead of 'sofa'. Couch Tours or something - I lived on many a couch in the nineties.
Maybe they will be left told eventually, maybe one or two unless names can be changed? Not mine... mind you.

 

[gauchecritic]

Loving, cruelty, depression etc are only seen in hindsight after you've been given the trigger. In those cases hindsight is quite often invented or 'corrupted' to fit the situation.

Someone being polite can be transformed in hindsight into a come-on. It never was a come on, just politeness but now, not only are you looking back but you're also looking at memory rather than the event.

Noticing what's around you also needs a trigger. It's possible that the two consecutive discrepancies you noticed were triggered by the first. You began looking for and seeing discrepancies. discrepancies. I like that word.

Like the time you discover something new to you like say the word 'polyglot'. Don't you often find that you will come across that word several times in the next few days?

I read or saw some detective story or other a while ago and the bad guy was going to gas everyone in the room but there was a window open. He remarked aloud that it was getting stuffy and that he was going to open the window. What he did was close it shut. No one noticed because the main part of the act was that he approached the window, the people in the room filled in the rest. No one noticed the missing detail they were only aware of the overt action.

Ask a guy, any guy to go find something in a drawer which you know is there. Unless the drawer is empty save for that one thing. more often than not a guy won't be detailed enough in his looking to find it. (and will come back and tell you it's not there, to which you reply that if you have to go look in the same place and it's there then woebetide him.)

Sometimes when you wake and you look across at the top of the wardrobe you may see a rabbit. However unlikely it is and you know that a rabbit cannot possibly be there it will remain until you reorganise what you see; a pair of socks draped over a cushion.

I've been starting to believe lately that humour is intimately connected with attention to detail. If you know that there is likely to be a punchline or something crazy going on then you pay much more attention to what is being said or what is written than to a political speech where you listen for or skim across waiting for key words.

I recall when I was attending night class learning BSL (British Sign Language) The stories that the teacher signed weren't actually particularly funny and if spoken would have perhaps raised an ironic smile but nothing more. But the level of concentration required in reading the signing made the whole class laugh out loud. (deaf mute laughter is a wide teeth apart grin and jazz hands at head height, but you don't see it often)

It seems that not only the devil but the humour is in the detail.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Damnit, Shang!

Yet, what is the difference between "looking" and "seeing" in your eyes?

Oh yes, so very much difference!

To this day I can remember the time-- early teens, so late in the game-- when I noticed the push-door still rocking gently back and forth-- and getting it, that someone or something must have pushed it. That there was a cause to the effect.

There are people who ask "How," and people who ask "Why". I've always been a "how" asker-- Which is a handicap now as I begin to create more complex plots...

 

[Harry Leg]

First of all, it's a chesterfield.
Secondly, this is the worst kind of tease. Wonderful build up, sprinkled with mystery and then, poof...no ending.
Please for the love of god...what happened to the damn cake?

 

[Stella_Omega]

First of all, it's a chesterfield.
Secondly, this is the worst kind of tease. Wonderful build up, sprinkled with mystery and then, poof...no ending.
Please for the love of god...what happened to the damn cake?

Someone left it out in the rain...

 

[Harry Leg]

Someone left it out in the rain...

And why was the knife wrapped in paper?

 

[Stella_Omega]

And why was the knife wrapped in paper?

They were worried it would rust, of course!

 

[Harry Leg]

but who drank all the booze?

 

[Lisa Denton]

Perhaps sometimes what we see is an extension of what we didn't see.

A Ghost moved your rubbermaid boxes around (while giggleing evily) and knocked all the shoes around near the stairs, drank up all your booze and then went for some chocalate mousse cake, he liked it so much he took the rest and went back where he stays.

Whatever you do --DON"T LOOK UNDER THE SOFA!!!!!!

 

[Stella_Omega]

but who drank all the booze?

... they did....

Which is why the cake got left out, see, they were too drunk to remember about it.

 

[amicus]

"Travels With Charley" ....now there's a thought.

sofa hopping for three more weeks...keep us informed?

amicus

 

[Harry Leg]

... they did....

Which is why the cake got left out, see, they were too drunk to remember about it.

Thank you kindly Stella for making all things clear, however...I am still deeply disappointed by the ever effervescent Charley.