Busy Signal, Grrrr

Today's the day for Life members of The Clearing to register for classes. Over the phone. Battling other people for space on the 5 lines. Lots of busy signals in my ear. A-a-a-a-nd I just got through so I've signed up for a Women's Writing Retreat the second week in September. Hooray. Hooray. Hooray. September seems like a long way away but it's like a little light gleaming in the distance promising a week of peace, solitude, and the company of like-minded women. Oh, and excellent meals. Ahh. I put more than half of the fees down as a deposit so I just have to save $415 to have it all paid for. That won't be hard because I put $50 per week in my stash savings cache, piece of cake because half of that's there already. Didn't want to beggar myself because I meet Lala in Sheboygan on April 5 for a long weekend and I need to pay for my room out of that. Meals and incidentals come from a deeper layer of stash that builds more slowly because it grows when I work more hours and get paid extra, for instance this week $100 will go in, next week too, but then I might not make any deposits for a couple months. It all depends on when Mrs. Boss takes off again. She has a mania for traveling so I never worry that the back stash will go broke. One of the things I love about my job is that I don't have any co-workers. It's just me and the customers whenever someone wanders in. So I can get my work done (or not some days) in peace and then knit and watch Downton Abbey episodes (I have to catch up; I'm on Season 2 episode 2) or surf the net reading blogs. Mrs. Boss doesn't mind if I watch, she's addicted too only she started watching earlier so she's caught up. Since I was too sleepy to write last night I thought I'd put on a poem I wrote about how I feel up at The Clearing.

May 24, 2009--Free Write at The Clearing, Ellison Bay, Door County, Wisconsin.

I left the crowded city of myself
shedding personas
right and left
to get a bit of peace.

The smiling extrovert
fell away first,
that weight was
a relief to lose.

The chains of know-it-all
dropped away
with a clatter.

The mother-skin
clung tightly,
left beads
of blood where it stuck.

This week I try to
burn only one candle
for my true self
who the rest of the year
gets pushed way
into the back of me.
~~~~~

Enjoy your day. It's drizzly here. Odd for February.
--Barbara