without 4:02 AM

I love playing in your fields
They are so bright and yellow
I especially like it when you aren't there
Then I can breathe without recrimination or guilt
Without the guilt of missed opportunities
Without telling myself what a fool I was
So, thank you for the fallow fields
Please surprise me at play
I dearly love to see you
.  .   .    .    .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .. ..   . . . .
Current Fads
Listening. Whatever Gets You Thru the Night, John Lennon
Watching. Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
Activity. getting rid of stuff
Gadget. iPhone 3GS
News Source. the news feeds in Safari
Reading. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkein
Writing. a novel

Wrong and Supposed to Be

It's all wrong. And what is "it"? The system in general. Here's "the way it's supposed to be."

1. Mortgage companies should be responsible for employment. Sure, the government gains a lot when voters are employed but it's the mortgage companies that really suffer. 98% of my mortgage payment goes to interest. I'm renting from the bank. They actually own my home and let me stay here and take care of it while paying them. So, it should really be up to them to get me back in a job. If I don't work all they've got to show is an empty house that, right now, isn't worth as much as it would be if I had a job and paid the mortgage.

2. Doctors should run dating companies. My health in all dimensions (physically, mentally, emotionally) improves drastically when I'm in love. Apparently there have been some statistics to back this up with studies showing married men live longer and are healthier than their single counterparts. Of course, it could just be that some men prefer to party themselves into an early grave. All the same, love works for me. Other studies show that people who are happy can eat what they want and not gain weight. As Pamela says in the movie Avanti!, "I'm not unhappy because I'm overweight, I'm overweight because I'm unhappy." Not to mention the physiological aspects of the hypothalamus (the center of the emotions) which is tied into all the vital bodily functions.

3. Businesses owners should sweep the streets and run counseling centers. Especially the streets in my neighborhood where the cars parked in front of homes testify to the idiocy of having a policy of raising prices regularly no matter what. In this shrinking economy old notions of marketing developed during the tech and mortgage bubbles need to be swept away. People are hanging onto their jobs by the skin of their teeth. They aren't getting raises. They're lucky to have jobs. Raising prices works in an expanding economy like a carrot in front of a rabbit. In a shrinking economy that's demoralizing. Also, those looking for work need to know what sort of worker you need. They don't need to read a page about how aggressive and forward looking your company is and how exciting and wonderful and what great benefits you offer. That's 90's speak and makes the same sort of stink hot air always does. Cars parked in front of homes are people not going out because they can't afford to. People aren't spending. Raising prices means they'll spend less. And maybe businesses should be philosophers, too, and learn something about logic.

Current Fads
Listening. Healing Sounds (free from Sounds True)
Watching. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Activity. waking in the night
Gadget. iPod Shuffle, 2nd Gen
News Source. Facebook and Twitter
Reading. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling; Political Suicide - Robert Barnard; UU World; Mensa Bulletin; Precision Auto/Allstate Insurance accident/automobile repair documents
Writing. a lot in a my head

Song of the Night: Song for a Winter's Night

waiting for an angel

Angel

Current Fads
Listening. Celtic and OMs (unpublished playlist); whooshing A/C unit
Watching. Camilla (1994)
Activity. exhibiting a semblance of sanity
Gadget. iPhone 3GS
News Source. Facebook and Twitter
Reading. Refuse to Choose - Barbara Sher; Shakespeare: the Invention of the Human - Harold Bloom; The Wisdom of No Escape - Pema Chodron; On A Clear Day You Can See Forever - Alan Jay Lerner (1966 original version); The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets - Helen Vendler
Writing. absolutely nothing
Song of the Night: Ciara
App of the Night: WhiteNoise

Guest Post: Sortia Snoodle

Hello. My name is Sortia Snoodle. In the mornings I hang out on Reggae Beach in my pink fluffy slippers, sipping latte and jivin' to the groove. In the evenings, I dress up in my best formal gowns and jewelry and trip to the light fantastic at a variety of dance halls where I know some handsome gentleman will ask me to dance. Is this a useless existence? I think not. It is highly amusing and lord knows I need amusement.

I'm tall, dark and lovely with a round curvaceous figure the men adore. It's easy to get picked up for a dance. What's difficult is finding a regular beau to take me dancing every night without the pressing need to actually be in a relationship. Oh, sure. All men love the cuddling and the kissing and the romance. Yes, they do. Men are romantics, too. What they expect to happen after that is the issue. Most men expect me to traipse along with them to some private room or other place and help them, er, get off. Okay. The nicer ones will wrap it in romance and gentleness and wait patiently for me to acquiesce naturally. Ain't gonna happen. I'm not interested in all that. Yet. It's the dance and vaporous promises that I like. The happy state of bliss that comes with finding some one who wants to travel along the same road. That initial state of airy union. That's what I'm after. And thank goodness the goddess has let me do that. I get to run around and enjoy myself without having to work for anything. Except maybe my release from overly zealous men ... and a couple of women. Although, I'm not sure those women were actually women. You don't know unless they tell you.

There has been one special man, Emanon Firecaster. He and I have danced away an entire week. He gave me a beautiful sparkling ring which I never take off. We meet and dance together for hours, kissing and cuddling and whispering sweet nothings to each other. It's divine. I have a terrible feeling, though, that Emanon is waiting for the acquiescence. I'm not really ready yet. I doubt I ever will be. But he is a sweet man and who knows? Maybe something will happen for us. I haven't seen him for four days now, so, as things go around here, our time could very well be over.

Well, gotta run. Time for Reggae Beach!

Signs of the Time

Well, it's snowing, really, at long, long last. It takes about four invitations from the weather forecasters to get the snow to come to Richmond. I've been up since 3:15 trying to go back to sleep by reading, drinking Tension Tamer and eating a cup of Cheerios. That didn't work, obviously. Now I'm eating chocolate chip cookies which are poison but taste so good going down and, really, go a long way toward distracting me from the pain of sleeplessness.

The street light in the alley is doing that amazing thing that streetlights only do in Richmond, which is projecting incredibly romantic light into the trees and offering the snowflakes a momentary dance in the spotlight. In no other town are the street lights such purveyors of dramatically romantic light as they are here. This is what really keeps me in Richmond, the gentle nightly caresses of the lights in the protective branching arms of the trees. I became infected during my first tour of duty as an art student in 1969 and the inoculation of years of travel has not cured me. Okay. I know inoculations don't cure, but whatever.

The main point is I'm awake when I should be sleeping. What is keeping me up? Is it that I have been unemployed for seven out of the last 13 months? No. I had more trouble sleeping when I had a job. Sometimes I thought it was the job that kept me up at night. Not because it was overwhelming or particularly engaging. That's what kept me up.

You'd think that seven months would be enough time to edit a novel draft and start getting it out there, wouldn't you? Well, it is actually. It's just that seven months of unemployment is not the same as setting aside seven months away from the job to work on a project. I don't feel I can really begin or commit to anything because I might be back on some job at any time. On the other hand, there's this notion that selling everything and living on the wind would be a lot more fun and an immediately relief from uncertainty.

Well, the cookies are gone. Wish me luck. And if you have a job or some other gainful employment that engages you, congratulations. Be sure you put aside some money for the down time. It comes to all of us.
Current Fads
Listening. Continuo, Avishai Cohen and Bonfire Dreaming, Jay Atwood; whirring space heaters
Watching. Defending Your Life (1991) (DVD) and The Private Life of Sherlock Homes* (1970) (Hulu)
Activity. trying to ignore the strident call of imminent doom
Gadget. iPod Shuffle (2nd Gen)
News Source. Google News
Reading. A Ticket to Ride - Larry Kane

*Christopher Lee is partly bald!

Oh! And if you know of some gainful employment that I would find particularly engaging, let me know ASAP. Thanks.

6 Years Later

Well, I was going to write a morose posting about how the worst thing about breaking up is waking up in the middle of the night six years later to have a conversation with the missing guest. Then I fired up Blogger and fell into "Blogs Of Note" and read "It's lovely - I'll take it" and nearly fell off the chair laughing. What a great cure. And then I took a look at My Little Multiverse and noticed that three of them were updated within the last couple of hours. Either I'm not the only one up at this hour or they're all on the left coast.