sigh...

AOL tells me that it's 44 degrees and raining. i've got the curtains drawn all the way back so i can confirm the weather report. it is, in fact, raining. a grey and white day but there's enough light coming down from above the clouds to wrap everything in silver. lovely. and i just finished making the prints to ship off. yesterday was a crazy fiasco of finding an emergency plumber and taking my friend to the doctor to get her cast removed. all at once, all at the same time, frenzy frenzy frenzy. everything is fine now and back to normal but i am worn out. completely. i let myself sleep in this morning even though there's stuff to do and errands to run and drawings to make and drawings to finish and paintings to finish and paintings to begin and prints to send off to new homes. i'll send them off this afternoon when the rain lets up. i don't take paper outside in bad weather. nope. it just ain't worth the risk. especially when the print is made with water-soluble ink. and so i apologize for the hold-up. the insanity of yesterday was completely unanticipated and i had to barricade the bathroom with OUR CLOTHES so that the crazy black water did not flood out in to the hall and ruin the carpet. it was a wild adventure to say the least. and then the clean-up after the plumber fixed the problem - a root had grown in to the pipes - a normal occurrence for people who live on the edge of a forest, but i had never seen water-works like that in my whole life. i didn't know a toilet and shower drain could actually mimic a volcano. no fun. and yes, it was as gross at it sounds. but this morning, i woke to a clean, bright, fresh home and the drizzle coming down and the wonderful quiet and black ink and coffee.

:)

i haven't seen my lady bug again. he probably found an escape route back to the grey forest outside. but on my jog today 3 deer ran with me for a short, startling moment. their white tails up, scared and searching for safe ground. scared of whom? of little ol' me?

i've never been that close to deer before, springing wildly and unsure of direction. for a second i was afraid i was gonna get my ass kicked just like that guy on youtube who tried to box a deer but then they ducked down in to the thick trees and were gone just as quickly as they came.

magic

awake, awake, awake after a good, warm, deep sleep and i don't remember any dreams at all. we got in bed a few hours early to read and ended up staying up a few hours late. we nested down side by side in all the big pillows and ate strawberries and pistachios as the pages turned and turned. and i noticed right away how good and softly romantic it all was and felt so thankful and happy. i wondered how many couples do things like this, or even how many friends, in pajamas and blankets, curl up together with books and things to munch and i hope most people do.

i read, all in one sitting, 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'. and on the 2nd page i thought, 'this is a story i'll read over and over again. this is a story i need to read over and over again'. i wanted to begin again at the beginning the second i finished it and commit the little rhymes and songs to memory before i moved on to 'Through the Looking Glass'. twinkle, twinkle, little bat. i read it like a child and didn't look for any symbolism or any of that junk whatsoever. i just read it and got lifted away by it, let the writing sink in to me and swim around and reek some wonder in my bones and brain, let the silliness spawn and multiply. my dear radish king is right- this story has magic in it and i can't believe i never read it until last night. the writing is just so good and so so musical. infectiously musical and full!

and when i went outside this morning with my coffee and my notebook and my dog, there was a wild turkey right there at the line of the forest, trying to fly, flying a foot or two at a time, back and forth, going nowhere at all, back and forth and gobbling all the while. inga sniffed the air and figured she'd find the ball she stole from the neighbor's dog instead of watch the turkey with me. the boredom of a rottweiler makes no sense. but i watched the poor, stupid thing and eventually it waddled its way deeper in to the trees, gobbling and gobbling, and a new bird with a weird squawk came to take its place.