Hi honey, up in the aerie, nearly collapsed after doing a whole bunch of hard housecleaning, on this dustbomb of an 1885 house. I do vacuum it twice a month, at least, but when's the last time I wiped the baseboards, especially after the winter? Dust is amazingly insidious - it settles on absolutely every tiniest horizontal or angled surface, vertical ones as well, if the electromagnetics are just right. Honestly I was feeling positively forensic in my minute once-a-year passes, in the form of swipes with a wet ‘spic-an-span’ loaded sponge, going after every surface I could find, while I was possibly even remotely motivated -- due to impending house-swap, not that our friends are such hard-asses, but, well one does wish to present one's best face.

Yes indeed, on my hands and knees, darling, scrubbing, and yes it was akin to the Francis Bacon image

and let me say too - in defense of this weeklong onslaught of housecleaning (believe me, this is unusual) - that it is the best workout ever. Never mind my lame ones to Oz or C.R. I keep up this regime -- and I'll be ready for a bikini! Or a thong! Like a Brazilian! and maybe a Brazilian. (Okay, so noted, how you like it - hey I get that, I'm just trying to imagine it, a bit. First of all, I'm going to have to do it myself - am I going to itch forever after? I really don't know the ropes on this stuff, I don't mean to sound like a clod. And obviously, this isn't the sexiest post ever.)

I had a wonderful session this morning, with myself & my imaginings, and I in a walk with weights around here too, as well. So that's good. Not quite the trifecta --- or, yeah - way so, with the housecleaning. The best, sexiest, trimmest, curviest figure I ever had --- was the summer, on the coast of Maine, that I spent as a chambermaid, in a B&B in Ogunquit, Maine. Now that was a workout. And you know -- there was no hanky-panky. Well, one paying guest, a guy, did try, when I entered his family's efficiency - but nothing happened, and I simply backed out. This was - summer 1979, maybe? Though, as a chambermaid whose hours effectively ended at four in the afternoon -- I had plenty of off-site fun, with the deliriously decadent and transient scene of the "below-stairs" types in the Ogunquit environs...

Oh anyway, darling, I only think of this now -- because truly my body -- which if I don't exercise very vigorously I instantly put on weight -- was rarely ever more beautiful than that summer that, days, I was stripping beds, scrubbing baths -- first Room 1, then Room 7, 13, 12, 11 (oh they're checking out today maybe a big tip!), 27, 14....

anyway, sweetheart, I'm fading now -- here is my day, recorded, in the tiniest, most inadequate form – but recorded nonetheless --

ah, tomorrow's another day -- oh, aren't I so fortunate? yes, I do feel that I am so, I am alive, and in quite comfortable circumstances, and with a sense of clarity, and with a loving and intriguing cast of characters around me... oh well, we'll see. We will see, won't we? It simply isn't, in the U.S.A., 2012 -- the previous generation's world anymore.

Aw, not to get heavy, or political. Having a hard time letting go... this message... good night, many kisses, sweet dreams, xoxo...

hitting send, because at this point truly (as I sit here typing) I need a shower...
I will be thinking of you, very much...