Life... in layers...

One layer at a time, something like an onion, somewhat similar to a croissant... and filled with delectable sweet and sours... That is the summer of 2010... Some lovely lunches this week with friends to round out a summer spent in little busy ways... I will start my workshops Friday. "What did you do this summer?" I will just have to wing that answer. One year when I taught in a different district, I answered them: "I traveled to Europe for the very first time. My book was finally picked up by a publisher and will be out before Christmas, and.... I teach fiction for a living." It took them a minute, but they were hooked.

I spent some happy time tonight rooting through the layers that comprise this room I call mine. My son and his lady love conspired to WASH his pretty spectacular cell phone. It didn't do it any good. I have an extra RAZR... and it will be free to activate. He's all about the "free" right now, and so am I. (I haven't received a paycheck since May 20th).... so all I had to do was to find it... That old silliness about it being in the last place I looked... well, that wasn't really true. I made such a mess of my room I kept on looking to see what might show up. While I was hoping for cash, I did find my beloved copy of Jo Packam's Where Women Create... I totally groove on that book, and I was "done for" on cleaning up... I have now turned out the lights, lit my candles, and turned on some music for my soothing process... I have learned at least this in my old age: This mess will be here in the morning when I get up. Of course, usually it is accompanied by some poor surprised guest who just stopped by and really doesn't believe my story about the place being cleaned up the day before... haha...


One time travelers with car trouble stopped at my home on the corner and needed to use the phone. It was mid-winter, and she had on a luxurious leather coat, black suede gloves, and a perky French beret. I had just that day dumped my kitchen cabinets to reorganize, a practice dearly beloved to me. I stuttered that my kitchen was in shambles due to my recent cleaning, and my little son who was about five or six stepped up in his cool batman pajamas that he wore with a yellow towel tied around his neck. "Aw," he announced, "My mom always says that, but it ALWAYS looks just like this in some room or another. Come see my room. It is even worse!" I watched the pretty lady decline that tempting offer and handle the phone carefully as if she might contract the dread disorganization influenza... She used the phone and wandered on to her impeccable, I might guess, home and life...

Time for reading in the layers of covers and pillows... Eat, Love, Pray. I have been trying to finish it before the movie comes out on Friday, even though I won't see it until it comes out on DVD. Hugs...