lovely day, lovely day, lovely day, love-ly day!

I just had the most wonderful day ever.
Duke won, 90% of my belongings are now in one house, (instead of split between three), my parents bought me a new mattress and a coloring book, it rained instead of snowed, I saw honest-to-goodness lightning and breathtaking clouds, I’m filthy dirty, and I just made-up with my cd player.

Perhaps I should explain that I’ve been in a fight with the cd player in my car. We have kind of a rocky relationship. (Have had ever since September.) We used to be good friends, but then he started showing his true colors and… Well, we don’t always get along. But it’s always just a short-lived spat. We have it out and the next day we’re fine.
(He’s such a baby. It’s bad enough that he takes my things without asking, but then when I try to approach it like an adult, “Please, may I have my cd back?” he ignores me. Then when I say something to the effect of “Well, if you’re going to keep my cd, can we at least listen to it?” and he says, “What cd? I don’t have any cd.” and I can see it right there…
So I yell, “Liar!!” and turn violent. He keeps flashing his “no cd. no cd.” in front of the “cd in.” and I scream and set the radio to scan.)
This last fight lasted three or four days. I was beginning to think we’d never be friends again. I started using my brother’s ipod. (I tried the radio, but we’re really not meant for each other.) I never use ipods, but you know, sometimes you just have to move on.

Today started out as the craps. Well, breakfasting with Joey is never the craps, but neither of us was, shall we say, excited for what the day had in store. And we didn’t really eat together so much as leave at the same time. Joey to her busy, productive life, molding young minds and then entertaining them into the wee hours and me to the relentless and mentally exhausting toil of moving.

I finished my scheduled tasks (½ hour early!) and headed back down to the prov.
By 3:30, through the ups and downs of the day, I was still leveling out at "Let’s just get this over with."
At 3:55 I picked myself up, washed my face, and Joey took us down to the Hare Krishna temple (Ok. OCD here, but it’s really called the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple. I know this and yet continue to call it the Hare Krishna temple. What’s my deal?)
Now, I love holi. I’ve always loved holi. I haven’t missed a holi since I’ve been in college. I was there before it was the cool thing to do and they had a rock band. (I’m not saying I discovered holi or anything. By no means. And it’s always been the cool thing. But what was with that guy… and the sunglasses…? And the… what the… whoa!... pull up your pants, please! And I have to say, I like just straight drums, cymbals and chanting better. I really do.) But to be honest I was doubting whether I could make it all the way through. I wasn’t sure I had the energy necessary to ensure proper enjoyment of the true holi experience. But once we got inside and sat down, I thought to myself, “What was I thinking? I love holi. This is the perfect way to end the day.”

So holi goes on as holi does. Great dancing, technical glitches, we burned the demon, I met up with Angela, made some new friends, saw Dan, then Allison, Sam, Ammon and Amy showed up, Valerie came, it was lovely. (That is so totally me with Sam and the guy on the website. Sweet! And Joey just told me that I'm in the Daily Universe too! [Vielen danke to Angela for the link. You're awesome!])

Highlight of the holi night:
As I was standing on the edges looking for Al and the rest, some of the more jubilant and few actual Indians were playing around and one walked up to me and said (please, even if you refuse to read it aloud, in your head, use your best Indian accent for this), “Would you like some real color? Straight from India.” And rubbed the deep, dark, beautiful, thick, not about to blow off your cheek like that fake powdery stuff, red paint on both sides of my face. I was ecstatic.

There is a quote that I love that Allison loves to quote: “Spring in Utah is not so much a season as it is a handful of pleasant days scattered through the last half of a six month winter.” (Edward Geary) Today had been a pleasant day after a long week of winter reasserting itself before, as my mother put it, its expiration date. As the color fun and the bonfire started to wind down, it started to rain so we went inside to check things out. I bought a shirt. (Not wise. Not wise. But oh so lovely.) When we left, it was snowing. (But in our gratitude journals we can all write ‘march snow’ because for all it insists on falling, it never refuses to melt.)

I got home to an empty house and started rifling through rooms looking for a camera so I wouldn’t have to use my phone (unsuccessful.) Then I went to some friends’ in an attempt to share some of this jubilation, but they weren’t home.
I walked back to my car. I opened the door. I got in. I put the key in the ignition…and
He apologized!

He said, “Here. I’ve had this for a while, but I want you to have it back.”
In turn I expressed my boundless love for him and put the cd right back in and together we listened to A Girl Called Eddy sing Heartache.

Where did those brass band mornings go?
And the dreaming over tea?
God only knows.
Was it so long ago?
You tried to let me know

You'd seen this face
Somewhere before.
Now you know for sure
That you can call him

Heartache.
Yes, you can call him that.
You can call him
Heartache.
You'll never take it back.

Once there was spring inside his eyes.
Now there's only autumn winds
And sad grey skies.
And I'm such a fool
To think that I
Could change the rules.
I'd seen his face
Somewhere before.
Now I know for sure

That you can call him
Heartache.
Yes, you can call him that.
You can call him
Heartache.
You'll never take it back.

You've seen his face
Somewhere before.
Now you know for sure...