spring break so far:

monday: wake up late (10 am) and paint nails bright red. drink coffee out of the mug bought on our honeymoon in mexico. watch LOST, read blogs about LOST. Apply mudmask. nap. write a few Torts notecards on Res Ispa Loquitor. Drive to Gloucester and drink wine with Sarah in her kitchen. Marvel at all the home improvements since I was last there. Eat dinner with Alyssa and TJ. Go to Old Timer's Tavern and play pool. Sing Journey (Don't Stop Believing), and congratulate ourselves for bringing the house down. stay up past 3 AM with Syssa, discuss everything you can think of. end by arguing for Hilary Clinton as President.

tues: wake up late. go to lunch with alyssa, drink champagne. send your food back, but make nice with the server. go to a used bookstore (dogtown) and buy a collection of stories by lori moore (birds of america) and an erotic novel by anais nin (delta of venus). walk down the streets of my old town. run errands: get glasses tightened, buy fancy chocolates, do banking. go home bearing gifts. nap.

wed: wake up early. take T with noah to the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum, feel overwhelmed and peaceful. see the movie Juno and also feel moved, despite the (almost) annoying hipster elements. find the sweetness pleasing. determine to find more opportunity to use the word "bitchin" in daily dialogue. go to legal seafoods, order more food than can be eaten. walk home in the misty rain, consider how the word "misty" is silly and girlish, reminiscent of when I would pretend to be a monkey in the circus with my girlfriend and call myself either misty or trixie. watch law and order for two hours, write this blog. go to bed.

Poem

"Thirst" by Mary Oliver

Another morning and I wake with thirst
for the goodness I do not have. I walk
out to the pond and all the way God has
given us such beautiful lessons. Oh Lord,
I was never a quick scholar but sulked
and hunched over my books past the
hour and the bell; grant me, in your
mercy, a little more time. Love for the
earth and love for you are having such a
long conversation in my heart. Who
knows what will finally happen or
where I will be sent, yet already I have
given a great many things away, expect-
ing to be told to pack nothing, except the
prayers which, with this thirst, I am
slowly learning.

Speaking of Faith

A few weeks ago Noah and I drove to the South Shore to visit my parents and happened to hear a celtic poet by the name of John O'Donahue on the radio. It was a beautiful bright day and we listened in silence for the entire hour. I downloaded the conversation to IPOD and have listened a few times... for those of few from the OE, it reminded me of Doug Frank both in tone and content, which is admittedly a striking part of the appeal. The interview is titled "The Inner Landscape of Beauty"... the interview helped root me back to things that I believe in, refocusing my direction. So easy to get bogged down by the wrong things in this busy world.


Since I have enjoyed it I thought others might too... you can listen or download it here:

http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/john_odonahue/index.shtml

my cat, the narcissist.

When I hold Ophelia in my arms and show her our reflection in the bathroom mirror, she purrs like a lawnmower.

thanks eldad.

last night my friend eldad said that i was a woman of "salt and texture."

in the light of this cold march morning, i think that might be one of the nicer compliments of my lifetime.

The birds are making a racket outside my window.

nostalgia

today, I miss the salt sea air in my Gloucester apartment. the cool wood floors, in the summer sprinkled with beach sand. the red dining room where we broke bread with friends.

I believe I will be able to remember the smell of the Atlantic in Gloucester harbor even when i am an old, unfolding woman. That I will almost be able to taste it.

important development

I think we have concluded:

we want to have kids someday! I never knew if I wanted to be a mom. And it still weirds me out a bit, but someday noah and i will make actual babies. part of me and part of him. part of God.

and then something all together new.