Today, a friend came over and put together the first of two media cabinets that will flank my front door. I only needed one, but the one that arrived last week was damaged, so the company is sending a free replacement. (Thanks, sister Kate!) I actually have LPs (“records” for you young whippersnappers), and so the media cabinet - if one shelf is not screwed in - will hold them as well as my CDs and DVDs. Yes, I know about streaming, but I am OLD.

I’d just started to load the cabinet with my CD collection this afternoon - somewhere between 200-250 disks - and decided I couldn’t wait until the stereo system got put back together to listen to an old favorite by Kathy Mattea. So I plugged in my portable CD player that usually lives in my shed.

The song (link below) is in my range, so one of these fine days, if I can find an open-mic gathering place with a piano where people can sing their hearts out, I’m gonna do it.

There’ve been a few times in my 72 years on this planet when I thought I’d met the love of my life, but for whatever reason, those relationships didn’t work out. It’s possible we aren’t all meant to enjoy one of those, or maybe it’s just me being unreasonable or too self-absorbed to look at anything from a perspective not my own, which I presume would be helpful? I like living alone, but not necessarily being alone, which makes sense considering I was never alone (10th of 11 kids) until I moved to the Big City at 17 to get a job.

Even when I feel settled, loved, and befriended, this song - probably the worst one I could have picked to listen to today, being alone and putting into place new pieces of the puzzle that is my life - made me feel sad and lonesome. But it’s a brilliant piece by an artist I’ll always love:

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Now I can get back to work loading my CD collection into my new cabinet while finishing off this godawful drink I made several hours ago. (Note: if you have run out of vodka, do NOT combine bourbon with some bizarre carbonated beverage you never heard of before that someone left at your house.)

Cheers,

Lucy