The Many Forms of Appreciation.

It's been a crazy week and tomorrow afternoon will find me in Key West for a bit of quiet time. I've got an empty journal, a bikini and no agenda.

Of all the drama from the past month, it must be noted somewhere in there I made a friend of great proportions. Arrogant Dutchman (again, I mean that in the best way possible) is a Beautiful Person and The Mister and I could not have been luckier to have made such a friend. We will be visiting our new friend shortly and it doesn't hurt he lives in a city at the top of our travel list: Amsterdam.

For now, my travels will whisk me away to sunnier locals for time to sort it all out. Hopefully I'll figure out how to save the world, but a little personal direction is something for which I'd settle.

I am eternally grateful for the generosity of the friends I have, the friend I made and The Mister for understanding my heart.
My soul is bursting with gratitude and rejuvenation.
Thank you...

Inspiration aka How I Lost My Eyesight

After reading Oxymoron Hipster Dork's blog about his parent's scromping, I've been inspired to write about a time -a very dark time- in which I, too, felt the compulsion to burn out my eyes. Although I've tried very hard to erase the memory, obviously my attempts have been futile.
I have no other way to describe this but to tell the whole story in the disjointed terrorizing way it happened.
It was Christmas day 1999. I was home for holiday break and as with every Christmas day, around 8:00pm my friends would start calling. We would get together, hang out, probably smoke something and recover from a day full of overextending relatives. Not realizing we would end up at a bar, I had not taken my identification. Upon figuring out my lack of necessity, I sped back home to collect the goods. In my cup holder, there was a large orange juice and I decided to take it inside (this fact may seem innocuous, but is important). It was almost 8:30, very dark outside, the porch light had been turned off and I'd only been gone for 15 minutes. I opened the screen door letting it whack me in the butt, put my key in the lock and pushed the door open.
On the couch were my mother and father.
I distinctly remember skin, rapid movement and multiple shouts of "Oh my god!" from every party involved.
I grabbed the doorknob and yanked it back so hard it hit my arm with the large orange juice spilling it down the front of me and then stepped backwards into something horribly squishy while the screen door caught my other arm in the door jam. I screamed.
A minute later my mother opened the door to usher me in and found me covered in orange juice and shame. She flipped on the porch light and screamed. Her screaming made me scream again, but I had no idea why she was screaming. Then I looked down and saw a horrifying mess of what can only be described as entrails.
Apparently, the cat had decided to get in on the gift-giving business of Christmas and had left a dead rabbit at the door. The leavings were what I'd stepped in after my eyes had been burned out.
I took off my shoes, ran inside, changed clothes, grabbed my I.D. and ran back out.

When I arrived back at my friend's house it was noticed that not only had I changed clothes, but I had a somewhat shell-shocked look upon my mug.
All I could mutter was, "I need a drink and then I will tell you the story of The Worst Christmas Ever."

Purple haze.

It has come to my attention I need a moment to straighten my cape and regain focus. I've lost track of where my head is; lost track of who I want to be. Lost track of Me. Where I am and how I got here are beyond my grasping, but I still have yet to be convinced that is a bad thing. Perhaps it is just a different thing than that which I had envisioned.
Time. Reflection. Anonymity. Breath.
I suppose I also need Laughter (but anybody who truly knows me, knows laughter is my closest friend).
Red and Ray have set off to Key West for a month while Red's house is under construction. They have very graciously offered me a place to stay and their warmth, smiles and beauty are surely to be an inspiration. They are beautiful people who are the embodiment of great friends.
Lord knows I need to get my head secured atop my shoulders lest it fall off for good.
I leave Monday and return in 10 days time. Pretty quick on the uptake, but the very nature of Life is best not missed.

I've kept you waiting, but for a great cause!

It's been a couple of weeks since my last confession and before that it had been a little sporadic at best. I've been a bad, bad blogger, but all in the name of Purpose.
A little over a month ago, I received a call from a woman I'd worked with on the Kerry campaign. She said, "Super, I need you." And I had to tell her I had jury duty. Two weeks of jury duty, a heart stopping "the trial will last at least 14 weeks" and finally being dismissed led me to Ohio for the democrats once again. I stayed with Dads but never really saw him for the two weeks I was there. Campaign work is NEVER EVER finished and late-nights and early-mornings are the name of the game. Who needs sleep? There's always the day after the election. What I did not realize is we would win. I've worked on a few campaigns and had never before won. This time around the candidates were great and it was exciting to see people genuinely interested in their choices without having a 'lesser of two evils' attitude. Although during this campaign, I actually had --key point here-- HOPE, it never occurred to me that winning would inspire a two day debacle of which only Bacchus could be proud. Woo-hoo Senator Elect Sherrod Brown, Governor Elect Ted Strickland and Congressman Elect Charlie Wilson!!!!
Today is a week later and I'm finally alone. During my time with the campaign a very nice guy (I'll call him Arrogant Dutch, but I mean that in a good way) from The Netherlands who had been in Ohio volunteering for two months was sent to our county by the Sherrod Brown campaign. We worked really well together with our Regional Director and made fast friends. I feel like I found a long-lost brother (which is never out of the realm of possibility knowing my dad's history). Arrogant Dutch has another week in the US and has been staying with The Mister and me. We've visited a couple of art museums and met up in the evenings with The Mister and other friends. He's taking a couple of days to visit -gasp!- a republican (I told him if she breaks his heart it's his own damn fault: he should know better) and wow. WOW. Am I ever enjoying the solitude. Don't get me wrong, I love people, but I've been in a crowd for a month straight. It all ends Friday though because not only is Arrogant Dutch coming back for a couple days, but Moms, Stepdads and sister, Talent, will be in DC for the weekend as well.
No, no, please, let me entertain you. I live for being a tour guide.
After they leave, I may head off to Key West for a couple of weeks. Red and her sister Ray (of Marietta) have rented a house for a month and asked me to come visit. I think I could use a vacation with warm weather, a notepad, pen and of course, sunscreen. Quiet and beauty are things I just might be able to tolerate! I'll let you know if I go, because I do not think I'll have internet.
The past few weeks have taught me so much about myself and I have a bundle to sort through. Most of you know, I spent a bit of time writing a book. It seems I'd like to take it to a quiet place and burn it. No, no, no, I'm kidding. I want to re-work it and see if I deem it worthy of actually doing something with it. On top of that, I'm considering going back to school and definitely wondering if DC is really the place for me to make that happen.