Up Up Up And Down

It's been one week since Birthday Week ended and I wanted to document the highlights.

I wish I would have written this post last Saturday morning as originally planned when the glee from a most excellent Birthday Week was still there shimmering. But then Saturday night happened and everything went to hell very quickly and I'm still trying to shake that off. It was getting better.

But then I ran over a squirrel on my way home today.

I cannot describe the awfulness of that event. Animal rights advocate vegetarian here. I tried to stop. But he came out of nowhere. He was trying so hard to get across the street. I was in the midst of a turn. If I stopped, I would have been rear ended and possibly hit from the side. I had hoped he had gotten through.

But he didn't.

It was awful.

A lot of people would just say "oh, it's just a squirrel".

But I am not one of those people. The squirrels in my yard are fed by us. When Murray died, those squirrels became our surrogate pets. I love watching them play. They brighten my day.

I feel terrible.

I want to puke.

I am afraid to look at my tires. I am afraid to drive in that intersection. I don't want to see what I did.

Ups and downs. Highs and lows. The constant rollercoaster.

I had written about some of the Birthday Week happenings already. My show at The Nomad in which my sister Jackie completely shocked me by showing up. She moved to Montana two years ago and I hadn't seen her since then.

There was my recording session. Vocals night #2. The record is coming along.

There was the most amazing nap I've ever had. Curled up with my dog. He's such a good boy.

My mother-in-law made a most delicious chocolate birthday cake that I spent the whole week enjoying.

Matt and I partook in late night frozen pizzas twice and a 3am viewing of The Big Lebowski. Because he gets to enjoy some of the perks of Birthday Week, too.

Both Ani Difranco and Leonard Cohen released new songs from their upcoming albums due out October 14th and September 23rd, respectively.




And I went to the Minnesota State Fair. Twice. And it was awesome.

So, you take the good, you take the bad, right? Thus is life.

I'm not going to get into what happened on Saturday. Because, as with everything, it will pass.

I donated $50 to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota. It was a suggestion from Matt to try to make myself feel better about the accident that happened. And it did help. Hopefully some other little squirrel somewhere will get the help it needs.