Connecting the dots

I ventured to Powell’s Bookstore today, which is a must see place if you ever visit Portland, and becomes a frequent go-to spot for Portlanders for all their reading needs. I wanted to find a new crossword puzzle book to occupy my time on my upcoming 36 hour train trip to Minnesota. As I wandered around the crossword section looking for just the right book, I noticed other books of games and puzzles: Sudoku, word finds, mazes, brain teasers. Then I recalled how much I loved doing dot to dot as a child. Something about going from number to number and finally producing a picture always felt like such an accomplishment. Maybe it’s because my drawing skills are so very limited; I can produce the ever popular stick figure, as well as a sun, moon, clouds, a very square house with a chimney (and smoke coming out of it for the full effect), and the v-shaped birds that don’t really look like birds at all. After searching the “grown-up” section for any dot to dot books and finding none, I moved to the children’s section. Success! I found a small section of dot to dot books, and one that was more “advanced” – perfect! I brought it home and anxiously found the perfect mechanical pencil to use with a nice fine lead that would produce a thin line, conducive to rendering a most artistic drawing. I started at one, slowly going from number to number; ending at fifty I looked and voila! I had drawn a peeled banana! I squealed with delight like a small child. Truthfully though, I could not take credit for having drawn anything – I just remembered how to connect the dots.