RAINY DAYS IN BK

It's been a beauuuuutiful early fall here in Brooklyn. Cozy and insular and thoughtful. We've had precisely zero thunder storms since August though, which is unacceptable, and even though the skies seem to have been threatening rain for weeks on end they've stayed shut tight, and my rain boots have started to give me dirty looks, and I started to notice the other day how badly I needed some nasty weather to hide out from. Toes in the socks under the blankets with a book that isn't mine kind of hiding out. Do you know how that is? I suppose I feel I need permission in order to hole in for a while and just live in the moment, hang out with my boys, and not try to multitask all the things and answer all the emails while also making all the oatmeal . . . you know. It's been a busy season for us all, and it's been hard to really relax when the quiet times do come, because there's always something I could be doing, and once you're in the habit of never sitting still I suppose it's especially hard to all-the-way stop. My head feels a little bit scattered. I put my keys in the fridge the other day and then couldn't find them for hours. 

It rained here on Saturday afternoon. A good all-day rain and thank you, thank you, it really hit the spot. I didn't leave the house at all. (I mean, until I ran to the Rite Aid for some fake eyelashes.) We watched some conference till we couldn't watch any more conference, we watched some Harry Potter, we spent some time with some coloring books, all the while I puttered around the house tidying up socks and toys, more socks, some string cheese wrappers . . . feeling guilty for not sitting still and feeling guilty that there must be something I could be doing . . .  eating chocolate chip cookies . . . Yo, it turns out that the recipe for chocolate chip cookies I posted a few years back is still the best chocolate chip cookie recipe to ever exist. Not even exaggerating here. Also, seasonally appropriate cookie links coming at you right now thank-you-very-much: these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are the only pumpkin flavored things anybody needs to be eating right now. (Although I did just buy pumpkin-flavored cereal at the Trader Joe's the other day, so don't listen to a word I . . . uh . . . type.) 

I want to be able to clear my head all the way until the only sound I hear is the thud of my own heartbeat in my ears. It's been a couple months now but we still do that thing where we stop mid-stride in front of these windows and go, "THESE WINDOWS," and those stop-in-your-tracks moments when the rest of your thoughts flitter away and you're just in one place doing one thing feel so, so refreshing. I'm still in the getting-to-know-you phase with this apartment, still smitten with all the different ways the different sunlights can do all these different things with all our different corners, still discovering other funny things, like the other day when I discovered the corner where the centipede family lives and flipped my ish so hard . . . But it's been such a huge pleasure to be here. Brooklyn in the summer was ace. Brooklyn in the fall is shaping up reaaaaal nice. I really, really can't wait to see these windows in the snow. Eventually I will find myself a good window cleaner. And a decent exterminator.  I'm still working on slowing the eff down. I suspect I'm going to need ten more rainy afternoons like Saturday before I get the hang of it. 

Oh, Barrold. Barry and I have a good thing going. Believe me when I tell you, the man understands some things. Mostly I like to look at Barry and remember that however important something might feel to me right now, someday I'll be dead. Maybe I'll end up stuffed and mounted on somebody else's wall. And then what? It's good perspective. Barrold is a rather understanding chap. He still looks a lot like Barack Obama to me. 

Kiss those cookies right on the mouth. Kissies!