Weekend

It was a magical & healing weekend for me. I went on a house cleaning rampage Friday night, and made everything look spiffy. This nicely complements all the hard work Mom has been doing outdoors, transforming things as she is into some weird and cool version of paradise.

Ben and I went to Astoria on Saturday, taking scenic routes on the way there and back. We shopped; ate a huge breakfast; drank coffee; saw the tallest tree in Oregon; stopped at a cemetery hidden in the woods (with its own children section); walked near a waterfall; got wind-whipped as we tempted the waves off the sandy shores; and enjoyed silence together while driving through cracked roads that were surrounded by mossy trees and open fields and the possibility of elk.

Yesterday, Mom and I had Julie over, and we partook of a delicious dinner. Mom just outdid herself. This came right after I went over to Ciara's, and got a lovely deep tissue massage, and felt so many things leave my body. Ciara's lucky number is 44, which happens to be one of mine, too, and the whole house felt peaceful and alive. We discussed the planet Saturn, and how it moves into our orbit every 28 years, and I found more comfort than she could ever imagine in our discussion on that time between 28 years old and 30 years old, and how we are tearing ourselves down and building ourselves up again, almost violently, always essentially. She said some of those final traces happen in the first few months of being 30, and maybe these scar tissues are what I feel, like architecture, taking on new shapes inside me.

Ben is sick with a cold, and I just want to drop everything and nurse him back to health with chicken soup, massages, and good listening skills.

Love to you all -- to those who listen, and read, and offer their own words. Couldn't do it without you.