to be my sunshine after the rain

My father's family farm house burned down to the ground early Wednesday morning.

CUE BOYZ II MEN

(the live version on Aresenio Hall ain't bad either - and it captures the CLASSIC boyz II men fashion! And there are random children dressed as gangsters that show up to snap along)

p.s. did you know this is a motown song that originally appeared in the movie Cooley High???!

&



There is everything right and something timeless about Mariah's hair in this particular era, just so you know. If my hair looks like this, you know it's a good day for me. You also *might* want to check out the original video and see Mariah's PERFECT 1998 outfit. Also, her voice.

Back to the farm (pictures of which I won't show you b/c i can't even look at'em) :

I remember chasing kittens, picking pecans, and trying to pick out honeysuckle stamen (it's hard) and riding my bike to the river by the Co-op past the levee to look at driftwood and find fossils (with grandma and Meredith behind me in the CHEVY BLAZER) and eating apples from the tree out back, watching the first sunset I ever remember ever in the arms of my grandpa looking out over fields of soybeans that had been in the family for I guess a hundred years or so. EMOTIONS.

Pouring one out for my homie (homestead) - DORENA.

Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.

- Kurt Vonnegut

So, I've been chilling with my grandma a fair amount lately. I'm so lucky to be living in town with her -- I just wanna put her in my pocket. I'm trying to convince her to make my mom, me, my sister and herself matching dresses for Christmas. Can you even imagine? 3 generations, one dress - magic! So silly.

This WWII series on PBS gets me thinkin' - about her, me...and about...um, stuff.

Makes me wanna throw a clog at some heads!

Now, grandma says that we kids don't need to worry about our community when we have our careers to concern us -- but I look at what she and my grandpa did as far as community organizations and just general coaching of baseball teams and leading of girl scout troops (my grandma's a girl-scouting rockstar...I bet she still could make a whole meal from like, stuff gathered in the woods, and would think nothing of it) and I'm thinkin' she was being humble and wise, and perhaps a little unintentionally self-deprecating.

It all just makes the quest for the greatest moijito, the perfect quilted clutch and/or the StL bar that exudes "new york/chicago cool" (whatEVER that is!?!?!) seem just a little silly.

How anyone can see what's going on and not be inspired -- even if its just sending inspired good vibes locally?

Gotsta do good for grandma.