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“I had a tub birth.”

“You gave birth with all the stuff?”

“Oh, yeah. The afterbirth floats.”

“Must be like the tide at Omaha Beach.”

These ladies are making me laugh today. Q sent an email looking for Halloween suggestions for she and DMC and everyone is chiming in (top: Bouff, K, Q; bottom: Bouff, Q, Dux). For the record I’m the Halloween curmudgeon in the group; I always grumbled about costumes, have never done a paired-up Halloween costume, and generally don’t like the holiday. I do, however, have exceedingly fond memories of years-ago costume parties in the kitchen suite our sophomore year.

So. Herewith, some suggestions:

– ragin’ Cajun backcountry brother/sister/husband/wife (K)
– Fred & Wilma Flintstone (K)
– black skirt suit, updo, square glasses, gun, baby doll (Bouff)
– maxi dress, baby taped to each boob, 4 more kids, cheetos bags, DMC in fedora (me)
– leggings, red hair extensions, DMC loses 80 pounds, dresses as female DJ in skinny jeans (me)
– Q in kibbles & bits bag as strapless dress, DMC as dog (Dux, who, notably, has worn the female half of this costume on a previous year)

cannot write my own words today, so seeking solace in those of others. is the universe unfolding just as it should? when will it reveal itself to me? does anyone know?

Comfort – Deb Talan

When everyone has gone to sleep and you are wide awake
there’s no one left to tell your troubles to.
Just an hour ago, you listened to their voices
lilting like a river over underground
and the light from downstairs came up soft like daybreak
dimly as the heartache of a lonely child.

If you can’t remember a better time
you can have mine, little one.
In days to come when your heart feels undone
may you always find an open hand
and take comfort wherever you can.

And oh, it’s a strange place.
And oh, everyone with a different face
but just like you thought when you stopped here to linger
we’re only as separate as your little fingers.

So cry, why not? we all do
then turn to one you love
and smile a smile that lights up all the room.
Follow your dreams in through every out-door
it seems that’s what we’re here for.

And when you can’t remember a better time
you can have mine, little one.
In days to come when your heart feels undone
may you always find an open hand
and take comfort, there is comfort.
Take comfort wherever you can, you can, you can.

You know what I really hate? When people say, “Do you want the good news or the bad news?” and the good news is just made up and the bad news is real and bad. Not awesome.

I have a few minutes of quiet after having sent the family off to soccer. As you can see from the photo Grace and I have reached a compromise re: her hair. She drove me insane this week pulling out hair elastics with the constant refrain that “they make me look cute! and i want to look beautiful!!!” so I slapped this white headband on her this morning. A little shady as I have no idea where it came from and it showed up in the bathroom one day (from the cleaning people? a gift from the lice on their way out? who knows). But it’s keeping her hair out of her eyes which is my primary goal. Am doing laundry and dishes and generally keeping chaos at bay. Then Whit and I are going to see my all-time favorite kids’ band (I am a bigger fan than Whit is), Steve Songs (we were fans long before he hit it big on PBS) with my old friend Emily Frug and her son Charlie. Grace and her father are going to watch the Harvard women’s soccer game.

It is a beautiful, crystal clear fall day. Cornflower blue sky and yellow leaves everywhere. The beauty all around is almost enough to distract me from the smoking rubble of the world as we know it.