dispatch from the woods
sitting in neil’s kitchen in neil’s house in the woods (not neil’s the woods belong to eveybody), drinking an early morning cup of green tea, english muffin and blog-catch-upage while the Man sleeps on.
it’s blissful out here. cabal the big white german shepard is sleeping at my feet. we went for a romp outside and now my feet are wet, but it’s warm, since it’s summer, so it doesn’t matter. i try to take a little time every day of summer to remember how much i fucking hate winter. i don’t hate much. it takes a lot to get me to hate something.
but man i fucking hate winter. i could never be in a snowstorm again for the rest of my life and never miss it. sometimes i don’t know if growing up in a house in new england with no heat has something to do with that, or it’s just genetic. but i run about 20 degrees colder than everyone else i know. i’m told the vegetarianism doesn’t help.
but i’d rather move to bali than start eating steak, i dunno, just sounds like a better deal.
i do things when i’m at neil’s that i don’t do anywhere else.
my home has become overrun with work and stress but moreover, i never even OWNED a toaster….where the fuck would i put it? there is no room amongst the debris of my apartment for such a frivolous item. but here, there is a toaster with FOUR SLOTS and i can toast english muffins all day long and put sunflower seeds and elderberry jam on them and feel like a person again. i can also make out with neil. but honestly, the toaster is what keeps me coming back. it’s HUGE.
the last time i was out here, for a week in may, i totally turned everything off and went on mental and electronic vacation. i juiced and toasted and let my brain drain.
this time i’m continuing life. it’s weird, how easily neil and i fit together, it keeps astonishing me. today he’s going to head to NPR and do radio and i’m going to stay at home, catch up on work, practice for the upcoming shows, sign more books. we signed 800 last night while watching episodes of The Mighty Boosh and 30rock with maddy, neil’s awesome daughter, while my trusty girl friday (miss beth) made sure our markers stayed fresh and the paint didn’t smear. she’s out here for a couple of days too, not just to help with the signing but to do what we’re referring to as “assistant bootcamp” with neil’s assistant, the fabulous lorraine. lorraine’s been neil’s assistant for 17 years and they have a formidable system of awesomeness. beth has been my assistant for one year and whil some of her work is totally different, a lot of it’s the same. lorraine is shedding wisdom left and right. it’s kinda beautiful.
meanwhile there are the cherry trees and the bees and picking peas in the garden at night and the vast woods and the dog. and the toaster and the strange feeling of falling in love more and more every minute with something that feels like it’s been there all along. it’s so easy it’s disgusting.
i’ve got a lot of things that i’m trying to get off my plate, they keep piling up, these head-ideas of things to blog and disseminate.
but for right now i just wanted to say this:
“I’m OLD GREGGGGGGGG”
and
prepare yourselves for a near-daily blog onslaught in the next week or so.
X
AFP
update: beth (who only showed up yesterday) has woken up, got bitten by a tick in the night and was also lovingly assaulted by olga’s blind cat (who neil is babysitting). she shuffled down to the kitchen to get a red bull from the fridge and SAYS she wants to go back to new york city but i think she’s sort of lying because we have cherry crumble.
