I’ve got the world on a string
Sitting on a rainbow
The angelic voice of Ella Fitzgerald floated in the air, her voice, the piano, it all explaining my mood and the summer air.
I’ve got a song I can sing
I can make the rain go. . .
Wednesday July 5
Today was a good day.
I’ve never considered myself one of those people who had good luck. (Case in point: the falling into a well incident.) I’m the kinda girl that attracts accident-prone incidents like a bird dropping a dead mouse at my feet and almost hitting me when I was chilling in the Italian Garden at Kensington Gardens. And it’s not like I have a bad life. I honestly have it pretty good, gimpy ankle and all. But take my sister, for instance. We used to joke around that she was a Miracle Child, since it seemed that things just kinda work out for her. A guy at our favorite taco place started giving her free tacos. Mind you, we would all frequent together. As a group. Even Dan Thizzl commented sagely from his place in Berlin, “She’s married, has a kid, and likes her job? All she needs is to win a rocket trip to Mars, and I think that’s everything.” Thing is, I wouldn’t put it past her to actually win a lottery ticket to Mars, given the chance.
There are certain days when things just go your way. Come together. I felt it at the Fan X comic book convention last year, at a gemstone booth. The rock girl proffered me a DnD dice.
“Roll for a chance to win,” she said. I think I laughed, answering with, “I don’t win things, but sure, why not.” I almost couldn’t believe my eyes at the nat 20. That simple thing was indeed a simple thing, but it was a sign to me that my luck was turning around, that things could go my way, even after (and maybe even in) a shitstorm of things that hadn’t necessarily gone my way.
But I digress. Here is a brief summary of my day:
-Got the greenhouse looking pretty fly, the tomato plants are actually thriving
-A team doing farm maintenance came in. Used Google translate to talk to a guy that looked just like Kristoff from Frozen. Like, the floppy hair and everything. Jonathan Groff would be proud.
-Riding through the wooded path, past the farmhouses, to town listening to music. If only this were enough, I think to myself, not thinking about anxieties or wars or calamities or why I’m not attractive or how to find my destiny.
-Godis is like Jesus and ice cream: it’s for everybody. I love watching to see Swedes stop for godis (aka candy) in stores. I once saw a big guy happily grabbing some candy, his thick muscled arms covered in tattoos. At the checkout line, his only items were two energy drinks and his lil sack of candy. He knew what he was about.
-Eating candy on the way home, my jacket got caught on the seat, and a car would have hit me if they didn’t stop and I didn’t almost fall off the seat.
-Have been part of digital poetry group hosted by Calahan Skogman. I recently submitted a piece which he read. Listening to poetry on a bicycle ride through the woods, eating candy? My gosh, what sublime.
-Made sushi with Ellie. Her rolls came out perfectly as if she’d been doing it all her life. I made another plate with sill (pickled herring) in place of raw tuna, and the substitution was pretty dope. Francesco joined us, Victor having to work.
-Watched Man vs. Food and Beard Meats Food videos while we ate our mountain of sushi. Ah, good times.
-Marabou chocolate for dessert.
-Sorted through the spare clothes pile, actually finding some good castoffs. Made plans to go to town and go to thrift stores tomorrow as a family field trip.
-Excited to drink herbal tea and write.
The film One Week says, “When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold on to them. They are the life boats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely illusive.” Today was a perfect day. Not because of anything huge. But a series of things going my way, and really feeling God is on my side. That feeling doesn’t necessarily last. But if I can remember these things, these moments, and cherish the Why instead of the What, well. That’s a kind of alchemy right there.
Maybe I’m Brad Pitt on Bullet Train: Maybe I’m accident-prone so I can appreciate when the good times come together. In a way, that’s also why I like to travel: there’s a kind of freedom, a perfection you can achieve in seeking not what is unblemished, but exquisite in its small, unsophisticated beauty. And that makes it perfect.
Highlights:
-My shopping trip didn’t yield an ankle brace (it was 250SEK for that jazz, and remember how I’m a bargain hunter? That, sir, was no bargain) but it was the most Swedish of items I had to laugh: a cucumber, strawberry jam, a prinsesstarta marzipan roll, and of course a small paper sack of godis.
Bike riding soundtrack:
Have you ever seen the rain?/Credence Clearwater Revival
Only the Good die young/Billy Joel
Our love/Avicii feat. Sandro Cavazza