not quite spring

There's a phenomenon in Portland (well, actually, in a number of places, but it happens so often here that it bears mentioning) where the sun shines while it is raining. A bit further east and I've even looked up to watch snow fall from an otherwise blue sky. A friend of mine told me there is a saying people (which people, I know not) have for when this happens: the devil is beating his wife. I have no idea what that means, but I can't help thinking of it whenever I am walking through town in this sunshiny rain.

I've had a completely unproductive weekend. I've spent most of it rather antisocial, procrastinating by any means possible yet still managing to have accomplished close to nothing all weekend, save for doing my laundry and a handful of dishes, watching episodes of Smallville while drinking port, and slapping a bunch of green mud on my hair in order to make it more red. Meanwhile, the editing project I have sat on my desk, taunting me. I'm ready to spend time with it, but in a few minutes I'll need to rinse the horse-food-smelly concoction from my head and then I'll try to sleep off all the tea I've consumed so that I can do yoga in the morning. I hate when I get like this.

My impulses are in a 101 different directions, so I stay in, try to keep my head from spinning off my shoulders. If I go out in the world, I am confronted with memories and confusions and I feel ill-equipped to deal with it all just now. I haven't written anything I've been happy with in weeks. I haven't revised all the things I keep telling myself I need to revise. I haven't selected the poems I am planning to send out, nor for which publications I should like to risk ridicule (because, it seems, all bookish offices have a wall of shame I hope to never be slapped upon).

And yet, there were good things too. I made plans to get ridiculously dressed up to do nothing more than walk around, perhaps feeding birds, perhaps knitting, just so our small group will have an excuse to wear some of our more costume-y attire. I read something that made me stop everything else I had been doing to reread it on the spot. My neighbor made me coffee so that I wouldn't be forced to go to starbucks, since I was feeling too lazy to make the 15 minute walk to stumptown. One of my cats did a thing that I like, which is to begin to meow and, midway, get distracted by a yawn while the cat sounds are still resonating, and this always makes me laugh. A stranger made me smile. And the sun shone continuously while it rained and I walked around in it, getting wet, but only slightly.