"AND HEAVEN KNOWS I'M MISERABLE NOW (JUST KIDDING)"

A couple of days ago, I sat and ate lunch near this window, looking out at the water.



And, today, I'm back in Chicago and this is what our water is looking like.



Huh.

"MIXED UP 20"

Welcome to another edition of "If It Could Only Still Be Socially Acceptable To Make A Mix Tape, This Is What I Would Put On One This Week" Saturday.. er, only on Sunday. Let's think beaches, warmth, boats and surfing. Good times, my friends.

1. Rock Lobster/B-52's
2. Rio/Duran Duran
3. Coast to Coast/Elliott Smith
4. Roast Fish and Cornbread/Lee Perry
5. Surf Rider/The Lively Ones
6. Message In A Bottle/The Police
7. Blister In The Sun/Violent Femmes
8. Island In The Sun/Weezer
9. Surf City/The Ramones
10. Ocean/The Cure
11. Surf Wax America/Weezer
12. Redondo Beach/Morrissey
13. Wet Sand/Red Hot Chili Peppers
14. Tugboat/Secret Apollo
15. Reach The Beach/The Fixx

"GOLDEN LIGHTS"

So, I decided to stay another day. It's necessary. But, I have a gift for you. I'll bet you thought I was kidding when I said I actually wore my Dad's geezer shades, didn't you? Wrong-o. Behold my early morning coffee on the beach near the 'rents place.



What? They fit over my Rx glasses. Tell me that's not awesome.

"AND IF YOU HAVE FIVE SECONDS TO SPARE"

Went to the beach this morning and picked up some funky seashells I have yet to formulate a plan for. Ate lunch at the marina with my folks while I wore the funky geezer sunglasses I had previously teased my dad about, found them delightful and, according to my parents, terribly flattering. Wandered around boutiqueville and found a boutique selling tiny puppy things and tiny puppies for said accessories. Back to the grocery store that is far better that my local chain supermarket that has had a little bird flying around for the past three shopping trips. Made dinner for my folks. Recycled some stuff. Gained a few of my mom's hand-me-downs. Washed my jeans. Drinking a boozey lemonade. Still tan. Heading home tomorrow but wishing I could stay a day or two longer...

"AS I LIVE AND BREATHE"

Hello from the the coast, folks. I have to say, after a week (plus) of frozen pipes and weeks of subzero temperatures, I am soaking up every possible minute of this warm ocean air.

Today, I chilled with the 'rents in Swanksylvania, their neighboring hotspot, and Swanksberg, their sunny city. We ate dinner at 5pm, to my great amusement, especially as it was on the heels of ragging my dad about getting these enormous sunglasses. Seinfeld in jammies is the order of the night. You know, I joke about this, but really, this kind of mellow is good. I think for all of us. I know it, in fact.

Things are well here. Nobody has said anything/acted out in any manner that will require therapy to overcome, in fact everything has been quite cheery. The beachy greenery is quite nice, and maybe the Victorian physicians were onto something prescribing a sea air holiday once in a while. Tomorrow, I will attempt to drive their Caddy for a few errands. Keep me in your thoughts. Oy.

In other news, I have a little crazy story over at Unfinished Stories today. I wrote it a long, long time ago and remember it being terribly fun to write, but it suddenly, almost mid-sentence, running its story-course. So, it found a home, at long last.

Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know that despite completely neurotic worries about crashing planes, I arrived safely and all is going swimmingly.

"BARBARISM BEGINS AT HOME"

Today, I issued myself a CFD (calm the eff down) card, as a dear friend of mine would say (another on the list of people I am more than a wee bit overdue in calling). See, I just lost my sense of moderation lately, which I've always been great about. So, I sort of hit a little wall the other day and just knew I had to put things back into proper balance. It's tricky when you really enjoy what you do for a living, I think. If I didn't love this writing/editing racket, I would go do something else. So, enjoying it as I do, it's easy to get caught up and just try to do too much.

So, yesterday, I went to help a friend with absolutely zero internet saavy get online. I looked over his computer and let him know that the reason his computer wasn't functioning was that he needed a power source... sigh. So, with an unexpected opening in my schedule, and a creeping-up migraine, I went and got a loud adjustment on my back, neck and hips. POP! Love it. Headache gone. Ahh...

I have a solid ticket to the coast Sunday, but I'm trying for a standby flight beforehand. See, my parents up and moved to the beach a few years ago, and I am overdue in visiting them. So, that's where I'll be. I had an, um, over-enthusiastic reader try to contact them once before, so we'll just say the coast and leave it at that if you folks don't mind. But, fear not! I will blog and work from there a bit, so nobody cry.

Today, I am listening to crappy 80s pop music and coloring my hair. This might be my greatest hair creation yet. Magenta, plum and brown. I have foil and stripes and chopsticks and paintbrushes and pins and all sorts of crap holding different sections of my hair here and there. So fun.

But, point being, I'm not going to knock myself out and stress today. I'm going to clean my apartment, finish coloring my hair, play with my cat, cook a little, do some good yoga, maybe call a few people I haven't talked to in a while, listen to music and if I feel inspired to do a little work, I'll do a little work. Mostly, I'm just going to chill.

"CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES"

Ah, there is is. I've been to this beach. Gorgeous, right? It's Anguilla. In the British West Indies, the northernmost island in the Leeward Island chain. And, holy holy, it is beautiful. I was indoors in Chicago almost all day, can you tell? And, I put the television on for background noise and the Travel Channel is running a marathon of shows about beach resorts. Sigh.