Day 35: Spring Fever
And the flowers budded and bloomed on the trees, who finally and swiftly grew leaves so green it hurt to look at them, and the air became friendly and you…
May 10, 2018
Day 14: We Pause to Celebrate Doug Jones’s Improbable Victory
posted December 13, 2017
OMG. OMG. OMG!!!!
I got up at 5:30, as usual, and immediately thought about the election. What had happened last night? I’d gone to bed with Moore ahead by about 5%. Ominous news to fall asleep to, just as it had been on Nov. 8, 2016.
Hudson and I made our way out to the dark, crunchy backyard–neither of us keen to leave the warm house. As he trotted around on the ice, I turned on my phone. The very first thing I saw was a text from a friend who always sends me her daily gratitudes.
“DOUG JONES!!” was number one.
I looked back to the house, and saw that Tom had turned the light on in our bedroom. “Tom!” I called as loudly/quietly as I could so as not to wake neighbors. He looked for me in the dark. I waved my phone around and jumped up and down. A minute later we were embracing in the kitchen. I can’t believe how happy this makes me. For so many reasons. Here are my happy thoughts (warning: some are decidedly mean-spirited):
- Doug Jones is a really good, decent person
- If the state of AL had elected a pedophile, I would have lost all hope
- The #metoo movement is going to bring down #45. Go, Kirsten Gillibrand!!!!!
- The wonderful people I met in the 90s in Birmingham (where we had a regular gig–at a club called The Nick, where I fell over and crashed into my amp, and hot water poured into my ear, and the amp fed back, and I thought I’d both re-broken my foot and also managed to deafen myself) must be on CLOUD NINE!!!! There are so many brave, fantastic people who live in red states and must feel so energized by this victory!
- Maybe the horribleness of the current regime will bring everyone out to vote in 2018. Maybe this long nightmare could end peacefully and democratically.
- Steve Bannon. IN YOUR FACE!
- #45 and his ridiculous morning tweets. I so look forward to his loss of power.
- Senate majority reduced to one vote
- Maybe now the good Republicans will have more courage to stand up and do the right things. Maybe they will not vote for the horrid tax bill. Oh, never mind, they just did. Well. Maybe that dumb bill will doom them for a generation.
- Thank you, African American women and men of Alabama. Thank you. Thank you. May the people you voted for follow through on the promises they made.
The new barn/house has a finished foundation. We are waiting for the weather to warm up so they can start framing. I am supposed to be looking at websites and making lists of things I need to get for finishes. But instead, I am working on my novel, finishing up my classes, planning Xmas, working on Diversity Day for JFK Middle School, and trying to go for a tiny run every day. When I say tiny, I mean 5 minutes.
On Tuesday, as the snow came down, Dave, Ben Demerath and Katryna and I rehearsed for our Christmas show for the Parlor Room this Saturday at 2pm. We’ve been doing a version of this show––Eat, Sing and Be Merry––for the past 6 years at Paul & Elizabeth’s on the Sunday morning before Christmas. P&Es can’t have us this year, so we moved to Parlor Room and the “Eat” part will be furnished by the wonderful Pie Bar in Florence, MA. Singing those songs–ancient Christmas carols from my childhood, spirituals, Revels songs––brings me home to myself. This happens every December–Christmas is an infuriating blur somewhere off in the distance at first. And then it comes into focus. My aunt Jenifer said once, “Christmas isn’t fun until you start making Christmas.” It felt like we were starting to do that on Tuesday.
And today, we got the best present ever!
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