COZY MONDAY MORNING

It's 4 am and I'm lying in bed while very cold rain drizzles down outside, unfortunately not snow, but who knows, maybe that will still happen! Anyway this is great too--it's super cozy in the house, the heater keeps coming on, and we're piled under blankets with Fia snuggled close. The deliciousness of winter!

Thursday I threw out my neck while doing dishes, though it started the day before when I lifted our bed with my shoulder. I was trying to pull a rug under the bed and I needed to lift the center support of the bed frame--before wedging my shoulder under the bed I thought to myself "This is how you get hurt," and then the next morning I woke up with stiffness in my shoulders and then BAM! While turning to look at Malko who was making a fort in the kitchen cabinets I felt the right side of my neck seize up and oh god, it was SO painful! Hot burning pain radiating out of my neck every time I moved a millimeter! All I could do was whimper!

I spent the rest of the day in bed and that was fine because I wasn't in a housework mood anyway, being burned out from all the painting and rearranging I did in our room the week before. So I just laid there and felt sorry for myself. Joedy came home early to help with the kids and that was nice, even if totally necessary given my immobilization. My neck still hurts but I think I'll try stretching today, get back in action and show it who's the boss!

Back to our bedroom: it's wonderful in here now. I painted the walls white and the floor purple, and then made curtains from this purple velvet fabric I found at the thrift store last year, and hung this great rug on the wall behind the bed. Then a few more things, and now it's the nicest room in the house--so cozy and colorful and fun! Just delicious! Like a mug of hot chocolate brimming with baby marshmallows! So drinkable!

Speaking of hot chocolate with marshmallows, that sounds pretty good right now. Only problem is, we're out of milk. Maybe I could use rainwater? 

I guess I could just go buy some milk.

But it would be so much more FUN to make the hot chocolate with rainwater!!

WHAT TO DO?!?!?!

To be cont.'d.

EYES OPEN

Today is Monday the day after St. Patrick's Day and I am drinking green tea to celebrate, having read until 2 a.m. about the BAM! FAZZLE! SHANG! amazing benefits of green tea and hot lime water poured over your head in times of stress, the principle being that the shock and burning stinging sensation will make you glad this doesn't happen all day long or even all life long, sort of the way I felt Saturday while driving on the freeway with Lula when a Honda Element swerved in front of us then swerved away then careened across our path and drove straight full speed ahead into the side wall, smashing and flipping and rolling in a real live horror show, the likes of which I've never seen, really, maybe felt a few times, but never seen, and which was not that different from the scene I witnessed and was part of while walking into Hairy Eagle Butt My Beloved Unpretentious And Super Wonderful Grocery Store and looking up at the twilight night sky and seeing not just a perfect crescent moon, glowing silver and magic, but a tiny airplane, an arrow, really, also perfectly silver and magic, its long exhaust stream or whatever you call it all alit silver and gorgeous too, an unbelievable manmade comet of beauty, really, and the nose of the plane was pointed straight at the gentle curved belly of the moon, the precise middle, and I thought "This is freaking amazing! Who sees this kind of thing EVER??" and wished I had my freaking camera but stood there and watched as the tiny amazing plane flew into the space of the moon and made contact and for a moment they were one, just a strange geometrical shape of silvery loveliness, and then the plane separated itself and flew on, away, its tail streaming behind, the moon silent and alone, and I wondered if the people up there reading and trying to stretch, hoping the goddamn flight wouldn't take too long, had any idea of the unreal beauty they'd been part of and if, somehow, my seeing it could somehow do something, I don't know, maybe just remind us, like that car did, that things happen fast and it's good to keep your eyes open--that said, happy almost birthday, Malko, we love you we love you we love you so much!

CLIMBERS' CRIES

There's a sound in the wind
sometimes
of the cries of climbers who stopped
near the top of Mt. Everest
to catch their breath and feel the glow of the sun
and who didn't know that pausing would mean freezing
limbs instantly stiffened
from the outside in

I don't care about Mt. Everest
everyday life is thrilling enough for me
the rapture of opening mail
successfully
cooking wild salmon and
broccoli
gives me all the glow I need
But sometimes late at night
I hear the teary sighs of climbers
whose pause cost them their lives
and I shiver because
who hasn't felt strong among tall peaks
who hasn't let their eyes rest
for a moment
on the infinite beauty
of diamonds
and who hasn't begun to drift
suddenly
sadly
away