Upside Ann

listen to the man in the liquor store....

 This song is nesting in my mind today. Is it earworm? ear-worm? ear worm??  (I checked.  It is the first.  Thanks, Google.)

We have boxes and boxes of photographs.  We have boxes and boxes of FRAMED photographs.  Assuming I ever move from this house - I do not want to move all of those.  Factor into this the problem I have letting go of emotionally charged items.  (Remember, I have boxes of letters from the 1980s.)  It seemed like a good idea to digitize the photographs.   If you are young, this idea might seem odd.  Once upon a time, we only could record images on film (negatives) that we would then print onto paper.  (Do I have binders of negatives, you ask?  Did you really need to ask that?) So, I did some research and bought a scanner.  I used to have one before Australia.  That scanner CAME with software to color correct old images.  My new scanner did not.  So, before I go much further in this process, I think I need to find some software. That dress was blue- or aqua.   Hmmmm - tried Picsart (below).  That won't work....

  Probably not, definitely not, as well known as other songs by this artist (Sinead O'Connor - if you are too young to know).  But "I will rise, I will return..." - that gritty wail. The passion in this song.  OMG.  "You should have left the light on..."   It tears my heart from my chest in a very personal way.   I think it is the anguish in her vocals - particularly in her first album "The Lion and the Cobra - combined with raw sexuality that speaks to me.  We will be listening to more of this album here in the days to come.  "I want you hands on me..............."

When I clean the kitchen, I put the butter dish in a cupboard.  Even leaving the butter out, even leaving the butter out in the middle of summer, our butter stays rock hard.  Not cool.  But that is why it is not in the refrigerator.  Now you have the background for the story. Last week I cleaned up.  Typically, I am not all that good at putting EVERYTHING away.  But I did.  I put the butter plate on top the stack of plates we use for meals - just while I wiped down the counter.  Then maybe I walked away or maybe the portal opened immediately.  All I know is that FOR DAYS I have not been able to find the butter.  I looked in the cupboards.  Even the cupboards where I don't think I have ever put the butter.  Even the, gasp, refrigerator. Yesterday was Sunday and on Sunday my Auntie comes for dinner (that is lunch in non-farm speak.)  I made meatloaf and real mashed potatoes.  Butter was still missing so I broke down and...

 Once upon a time, I used to - on occasion - pretend I forgot something.  Yeah, I know. Bad me.  But I was 22 or so.  And even at that young age it wasn't the thing I regret most.  I was in graduate school and there was a lot going on.  The thing is, it wasn't very long before I actually did START to ACTUALLY forget things.  Maybe it was stress.  I WAS in graduate school.   Maybe I just trained myself to forget.   Unfortunately, that affliction didn't stay at Duke.  It followed me forward and progressed in funny ways that made me into the proverbial absent-minded professor.  For example, I once forgot to go to class.  Honestly, forgot.  To go.  To class.  To a class in which--- I was the teacher.  OMG Now that I am a parent, rather than forgetting things intentionally, I will sometimes lose things intentionally.  I'm guess that most parents of a suitably low caliber have done this...tho...