Harboring the moon

My fat orange cat is even more howly and velociraptory than usual.  Meanwhile, I am feeling that particular electric mix of melancholy, rebellion, and creativity.

Must be a full moon.

Here are some things that sound like good ideas to me today:

1.  Playing hooky and wandering the city taking photographs of graffiti, stopping only for ice cream, hot chocolate or Italian pastries.

2.  Standing in the middle of the river of Sox fans heading into Fenway tonight and handing out cards with typed definitions of such awesome words as ataraxia, formication, and defenestration.

3.  Fingerpainting 25 portraits of my fat orange cat, hanging them to dry on the clothesline on the back porch, and forgetting about them until July.

4.  Calling up random receptionist/customer service type people in the south (banks, grocery stores, biology departments) and asking random but easy questions and thanking them profusely for helping me out in the hopes of eliciting some genuinely friendly "honeys" or "you have a wonderful day now ma'ams."

5.  Illustrating The Boarderchildren with pastels on black paper (in honor of Nick) while listening to Radiohead's In Rainbows on repeat.

6.  Renting a Plymouth Prowler and driving up the north shore in my stocking cap and pink sunglasses and the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs' It's Blitz! blasting from the stereo.

7.  Getting all my best good friends on conference call (since they're scattered across more states than I care to count) and letting them find out what they all have in common besides me (grand laughs, sweet hearts, busy minds and probably at least a certain tolerance for 8th grade humor).

8.  Flying my three sisters to Tuscany and sitting around drinking and eating until we forget all the miles we've ever had between us and never remember them again.

9.  Writing that story about the man who feels he misses something or someone but can't quite see or say what it is.  With, hopefully, my fat orange velociraptor asleep on my lap.

10.  Joining an indie pop rock band, co-writing an amazing song about slow dancing, and performing it for people across the world who will be moved to slow dance with each other and love each other a little more sweetly and preciously than before.