Confession Tuesday

Dear Reader,

The air smells of autumn, we are rounding the corner from new school shoes and supplies to a quiet house for six hours. Summer has waved a sad goodbye, the sun (which has been out sick most of the season) goes to bed a little earlier and the wool sweaters have already been taken out of storage. And with that, comes my writing life again. No more beach days or s'more evenings, the bbq is being put away today as is the patio furniture.

My Poetry Barn has been painted inside (photos to come soon) and furniture moved in. While I long for summer until it comes, I'm always a little happy when it leaves because I feel most like myself in autumn, a little warmer, a little fuller, and ready to write.

So, on this day before my official return, let me confess...

1) I have been listening to Abba pretty non-stop for the last two weeks after seeing Mamma Mia. (By the way, I learned about this great website called Pandora's Box where you can type in what song, musician, group you like to listen to and they will choose similar songs to your liking. I have Station Abba (and I'm currently listening to Super Trouper as I type this...) I also have the Indigo Girls station, Station Dave Matthews, Caribbean Reggae, Paul Simon Radio, Seattle/Grunge station, Mexican Radio, and the Jo Stafford station.

2) On painting my barn-- I realized I am the messiest painter around. I had to wear a fleece hat after bumping my light hair into a bright red just painted beam. I ruined my flip-flops (yes, I paint in flip flops), my capris, and green and gray cotton baseball jersey. At one point in the evening, I noticed a slug had wandered halfway into my paint pan & was accessorized in red paint --this is my life in the Northwest, exclamation marks created by slugs. This put me into recovery mode- washing off slug with the hose & hoping it was okay (it was.) I try to keep a personal rule of "do no harm" and well, slugs are included as well.

By the time I finished I had paint everywhere, it speckled the floor like an incomplete Pollock painting, but I didn't mind, I said this is my space and let whatever happened, happen.

3) I'm no longer worked up by McCain's nominee speech (though I think it was the most interesting technique to squelch rumors that she was raising her teenage daughter's down-syndrome baby by saying, "I can't be raising her baby because she's pregnant right now"- I definitely new approach to ending rumors) But I think what annoyed me most about McCain's VP nomination was that is came less than 12 hours after the DNC ended. It was as if we had the best party where everyone said the best things, but what is remembered is the guy who stumbled out on the lawn and threw up.

4) This article confirms my entire life as productive:

They've demonstrated that daydreaming is a fundamental feature of the human mind

5) Sometimes I forget that everyone isn't for Obama.

6) On the Caribbean Reggae station they play Musical Youth, "Pass the Dutchie..." if you're a child/teenager of the 80's you know exactly what I'm talking about -- "how does it feel when you got no food."