You know how I?ve said, for me, the beginning of Spring is like an involuntary emotional colonic? Well, maybe I didn?t put it quite that way. But it?s safe to say I have commented in the past on the turbulence that is Spring. It does f?k me up but good.

And then? And then there is Summer.

Oh god. Where Spring is all pain and spikes and the sloughing off of the old and the dead, Summer is all soft and curvy, freshness and new, sultry air being gently beaten by the wooden panels of a ceiling fan.

(By the way, I totally grabbed the above image of Lord Frederic Leighton?s ?Flaming June? from Che La Luna because it captured exactly how I feel right now). Although there has been very little sleeping. The days are long and start early. I?m generally up with the dogs around 5 or 5:30 and take them outside for a pee. There?s a sloping green lawn outside our door that leads right down to a secluded beaver pond. So as I walk across the wet grass in my bare feet, all is tender and sweet with the sounds of birds and frogs and whatnot.

Our teensy rental apartment is like living in a small hotel room, but it has an upside which is the dogs love being in such close quarters with us. I think it?s making them feel like they?re in some kind of den. And, the people we are renting it from could not be more agreeable to share space with. They have two labs as well so the four dogs romp each morning before T loads ours into the truck and heads up to Soliden.

They don?t come back until 8:30 or 9 each night so our evenings stretch out long. There?s really nowhere to sit or hang out except in bed so that?s pretty much where we spend all our time together and I have to say, it figures in nicely with my sultry summer.

As for the book--- I do believe I have softened up around that as well. I?m free from it. I didn?t go to the BEA and I am not going to be doing any promotion for it. It is what it is?maybe you?ll see it out in the world. I?m going to tuck the info right here because that way the only person who is this deep into one of my posts is someone who reads this site regularly and I don?t have to worry (I hope) about some terrible loss of anonymity. You can find it at amazon, barnes & noble, bed & bath, target, walmart?etc. All you need to do is type in ?dorm room feng shui.? I don?t know if it is actually shipping yet. I believe it?s not in stores until June 10th or so.

Because I?m in my full-out swanky, barely-clothed, loose hair, beachy mode--- I am feeling fine about everything. I feel like I have learned so much from this whole process and grown in ways that bring me deeper into a place of peace and contentment. I know that that makes for BORING reading?but, hey?it makes for delicious living.

One thing that has happened for me is that things are softening up in my family scene, too. There might have been a time I could?ve written a post entitled, ?my father, the fascist? and it would have been both funny and sad, loving and scathing--- and he may still be a fascist?but we are finding a way to graze fingertips with one another even if we cannot enter into full-out meaningful conversations.

In fact, the publication of the book (remember it is his daughter and granddaughter, so from his perspective it is all good) has seen him sending me a number of emails which is remarkable insofar as the only email exchanges we have done in the last many years are electronic birthday greeting cards.

I was apprehensive of his response to the book as he dismisses all talk of astrology, feng shui, psychology, sociology, etc as poppycock and so much liberal nonsense. It?s not that I cared about his response. I am truly light years away from caring about his opinions on any matter?it?s rather that I was prepared for the kinds of comments he would feel obliged to make about the subject matter of the book.

So, imagine my surprise when he begins an email exchange with me that was lighthearted and engaging. It ended with him trying to figure out how Asterix and Obelix would say feng shui in Gallic patois. Witness a bit of the email I got from him this morning:

En ce qui concerne Asterix et le patois Gaulois, je te propose " Fais chou oui." Vercingetorix va trembler dans sa tombe.

Silly, silly stuff. And I know that some of you are scratching your head, like wtf? But for me, it is a huge thing. The kind of moment where if this were a movie the soundtrack would swell and I?d be swigging water out of a bottle to keep the tears at bay.

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