Welcome to December, 4 AM

It is four in the morning and absolutely pouring rain outside.
Growing up in CA, I had a great love of rain which was pretty firmly squelched by 15 sodden Januarys in the Northwest. Strangely, the old appreciation might be back. Night is a particularly nice time to listen to it bouncing off the roof, street and freeway.

Ever get that shock first thing in the morning when you don’t actually recognize the person in the mirror?

• My hair is in even worse disarray than usual, the layers and highlights are overgrown like a hedge that has been ignored by the gardener. I look like an old fern.
• The toenails are uneven and have been a bit stained from the beetle green polish I can’t resist loving. (yes, I am really four years old.)
• I need a yoga class. I need to go to a yoga class. I need to get off my fat ass and go to a yoga class. Today. Gah.
  
  On the brighter side….In the personal grooming department: happily enough, there is a Lush in downtown San Francisco now and when I was there in October, they were slicing up a lovely hunk of fresh lemon soap, which has finally matured enough to now use. It is a quite divine smell-o-rama.
  
  Yesterday, in the throes of the day, I had the opportunity to stop by one of the best places on earth: Your Basic Bird, a pet store in Berkeley. Now I love all pet stores, even depressing little mall ones, but this is an extraordinary place: all the animals are exuberantly happy happy happy. Every little creature in the store is hand-raised, from the $1,000 grey parrot named Captain Nemo to the $2 mice. Even the sleek black guinea pig clambered over to squeal hello and nuzzle my fingers in a dignified and distinctly un-guinea pig fashion. What must have been thirty canaries had all pooffed out into song and were trying to outdo each other, like millet fed Star Search Contestants.
  
  The owner Carolyn was walking about the store with a charming older couple, lavishly gesturing about the room with something in her left hand. It turned out to be a tiny chubby grey-green baby parrot curled up in her palm, flirting with her thumb that was massaging it’s wee birdy belly and grinning up at her adoringly as only a small fluffy feather creature could. Awwwww.
  
  Okay, it’s back to bed for another 45 minutes of nap before seizing and throttling the day. Ciao, Darlings.