It was a week of poetry writing on the road...it was wonderful to immerse a
school with poetry..we wrote it, we read it, we recited it...we dressed in
poetic colors of ruby, sapphire, pearl, topaz, and emerald...each day of the week
taking a different color. Children were writing poetry in snow drifts (so one
mother told me!!) in lunch rooms, in houses with TV's turned off...it was
quite the week.

My host school took good care of me..dinners each night, new friendships,
more stories for me to tell!!

I came home late Friday night to a house with frozen drains...just a
homeowners dilemma...the House at White Picket Gardens let me down this time!! Well,
it was cold while I was gone...but frozen drains?
No plumber for me...of course, it took the entire day of Saturday to unfreeze
pipes (standing on a box in the cellar with a hair dryer, and pouring hot
water down drains)...unfortunately I broke something while I was banging around
(not on me...on the drains). I just put out a call to my neighbor, Lee, who
knows how to fix everything and especially how to fix an old house. Lucky for
me he is a cartoonist on the rise and doesn't have all his days filled...anyone
in need of a cartoonist (he is excellent) just let me know!

I woke in the night with a catch in my throat. My rehearsals start on
Tuesday evening and run every night until the show, the week end of February 26. I
panicked, actually, thinking what if I can't learn all my lines??? I mean
let's face the facts, I am a storyteller, and words are allowed to be moved,
changed, added, deleted, or even forgotten, and no one really knows. I just have
this feeling that Larry Life will know one of the above. I know this month
will be like no other...I have work every day...then rehearsals starting at
7:30...I have asked Jo (my sister) if I can borrow the guest room on some nights.
I only wish she could be in the show with me. She went to the try-outs...she
definitely looked the theatre part with her red scarf tossed about her...but
she is too busy in her world of business. It would have been fun, and I think
she would have gotten a part too......Maybe some other time????

January ends tomorrow...it has been cold but lovely. The full moon on
Tuesday was achingly beautiful...it is called the Wolf Moon. Legend says that
native Americans named the moons. January was said to have brought hungry, roaming
wolf packs in the dead of winter, and thus the Wolf Moon. As we move into
February, it will be the Snow Moon.

I celebrated the birthday of Robert Burns this week, also on Tuesday. I lit
a candle in my hotel room and quoted, "My luve is like a red, red rose..." It
would have been nice to host a party of haggis and shortbread...but as often
is the case, I celebrated on my own with hot tea from the lobby and some
saltines I had in my purse.

As I walked late last night I felt a tiny pulse of late winter looming our
way...I took off my hat and mittens to feel the change in the air..I can tell
the days are growing longer, and as much as I believe in the moment...I have
anxious moments of the future. Where will we all be? Where are we now?

As I end this passage, I'll leave you with the original verses of Robert
Burn's famous poem first published in Scotland in 1786.

So to all, good night to January...February, the month of love...come in,
come in..I have been waiting for you.

Love to all, Lou Ann

A Red, Red Rose

Oh, my luve is like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June;
O my luve is like the melodie
That's sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only luve,
And fare then weel a while!
And I will come again, my luve,
Tho' it were ten thousand mile!