There’s a cow on my bedroom ceiling. Actually, it’s just a head of a cow. I think there may be a scientific name for this phenomenon, something like hallucinatory images. That’s what I thought it was when I first noticed it.
But then, not only did it not disappear, it started to self-enhance. It was almost like watching an artist creating an image on canvas, except there was no artist and no paint and the canvas was my bedroom ceiling.
A few months ago I noticed the ceiling crack, which I assumed was a present from the recent rains and had it repaired. Now it has turned into the face of a cow. The right ear, which is in the direct line of vision from where I sleep, is outlined in a reddish brown but the face is white. The facial expression, however, is a ringer for Andy Warhol‘s Pink and Yellow Cow print, stern and confident.
Did Andy sneak in and gift me with this self-perpetuating image?
“What do you do with your time at night?” someone might ask me knowing I am a night owl. Well, tonight I’m just looking up at the cow that is painting itself on my ceiling.
This isn’t the first time cows have appeared in strange places in my house. On the morning of my 50th birthday, I opened my bedroom door to find a life-size black and white cow replica waiting for me in the hallway. Just as I was recovering from the shock, I opened the bathroom door and guess who was holding a towel for me ? A third bovine awaited me at the breakfast room table where my mother sat trying to suppress her giggles.
My late husband, who totally bought into my cow passion, arranged a cowabunga of surprises for my celebration.
Although my brother surprised me by flying out from Virginia for the party, the real shocker was the full-body black and white cow costume he brought and dared me to wear. With 30 guests seated in my backyard, clapping and cheering me on, I slipped the costume over my sweet party dress. Glam was out but Glee I was in as my audience erupted into laughter. I would have made a great advertisement for Laughing Cow Cheese which, by the way, is what George gave me when he proposed.
The note read “because you love cows and you always make me laugh.”
Oh yes, I’m keeping the cow on my ceiling. She makes me laugh.