A Day of Rest, even though it's Saturday

My dad said today is a day of rest. I am sitting on the porch. In front of me, on the other side of the screen, the sprinkler is sprinkling daisies and sunflowers and some pink flower and tall green stalks. Butterflies, monarchs and otherwise, are busy amid the flowers. Wow, there's this one butterfly that's bigger than the hummingbird that just passed by. I sort of was under the impression that hummingbirds didn't live outside of the southwest. The air is alternately filled with swells of insects and birds, like finches. And sometimes cardinals stop by.

My dad is drawing a few yards away, inside. He's listening to the shuffle Eliza gave to him a while back ("Tell Eliza I'm going to glue this to my ears"), and he just gave me 1 phone for a sec so I could hear a Joni Mitchell song. Which reminded me of a recent conversation I had with Matt and then Ryan and Jessica.

What 5 singers have had the most influence on your life?

My answers, in no particular order:

1. REM
2. Suzanne Vega
3. Paul Simon
4. They Might Be Giants
5. I can't remember. Kate Bush? The Smiths? I remember that it was good and true, but I can't remember what it was. Matt or Ryan or Jessica, if you are reading this and you can remember, please inform.

And also:

What 5 albums THAT WERE NOT RECORDED BY ANYONE IN YOUR MOST INFLUENTIAL MUSICIANS LIST have had the most influence in your life?

My answers, INPO:

1. Clouds - Joni Mitchell
2. Doolittle - Pixies
3. Substance - New Order
4. In My Tribe - 10,000 Maniacs
5. Outlandos D'Amour - Police

That's, of course, given that Kate Bush and The Smiths are both on the previous list. ... I think Thriller is also supposed to be on the album list, maybe edging out In My Tribe. This is getting really confusing.

So, whoever is reading this, please submit your top 5 + 5, if you wish.

Being away for 8 weeks is interesting. It takes, I don't know, 2 weeks to have a New Experience? Like, maybe you are thinking about something today. And tomorrow you can think about it and the next day you can think about it and it still has essentially the same level of temporal relevance. But in two-ish weeks it will be what you were thinking about two weeks ago. Because in two weeks you will be thinking about slightly different things, in a slightly different way. So 8 weeks is a long time.

When I first got here, life in Tucson pretty much seemed, in my brain, like it did when I was in Tucson. But now it's different. Life in Tucson has been sifted through, so when I think of it, I think of Neil and my friends and family (in Tucson/Phx, Phx) and the warmth and the LACK OF HUMIDITY and the Catalinas and Yoga Oasis and walking to the coffee shop and crickets and stuff. Tucson 7 weeks ago was all these things, plus stress from school and anxiety about the internship and anxiety about I have to stop at the dry cleaners and anxiety about I have to find time to take the car in, etc.

It's nice to be away for more than An Experience Unit so the reality of now can kind of be distilled. There are other pink flowers I didn't notice before, in the distance. They are more of a hot pink, and huge! Like pink butterflies.

Write back.