Day 4 of the Halloween Decoration Special Feature and IT'S SATURDAY

All the kids and Jim know that this is the only dishtowel that cannot be used to dry hands, dry dishes, wipe snotty noses, mop up spilled milk, or any of a hundred other approved or surreptitious uses for a dishtowel. This dishtowel hangs on the oven door handle PURELY FOR LOOKS. I've had to get mean about it too. I just know that if it gets used, it will get stained, and I couldn't bear it if it did. Even without the fabric embellishment, the plain dishtowel would be pretty and unique. I bought this at a craft sale in a barn from a neighbor of my mother's.

That neighbor has a daughter my age and while we didn't hang out together often, I always admired her free-wheeling lifestyle. Beth seemed not to care what others thought of her, she was always nice, and best of all, she was slyly sarcastic. She excelled at pointing out the inconsistencies and shallowness of the ruling clique. She followed the Grateful Dead around one summer, back before Jerry Garcia died. The band was very much past its prime, but the followers still congregated at their concerts. Beth was a hippie during the 80s when Reagan ruled (or Reagan's puppeteers) and yuppie-ism abounded and looked down its waspish nose at hippie-ism. She came to me a couple of times with a pair of pants or a vest for me to alter (I was a sewist even then) and, while I didn't much care for the bell bottom hip huggers she wanted to wear, I thought they fit her metaphorically (obviously they didn't fit her literally, or she wouldn't have asked me to alter them). My favorite memory of Beth, though, is the time she got on the school bus with a cup of coffee in one hand, another cup of water and her toothbrush in the other. She brushed her teeth on the bus and then she drank her coffee. I had never seen anyone brush their teeth on the bus. I would have been way too embarrassed to do it (I was pretty much too embarrassed to do ANYTHING in public back then) (except attempt to act. Or play clarinet). Beth, if you are out there, I still admire your individuality.

*sigh* I'm not very good at nostalgia, am I? I'm much better at stating the obvious or reading off a list of "Things I did or will do today."

So to play to my strengths, here is my list of "Things I will do today."

Saturday: Shower. Shop for jeans for Hayley and dress pants for Jimmy. Clean out more of sewing room, write creatively, clean kitchen, arrange more Halloween decor. Drive Jimmy to Homecoming date's house, take pictures. Tie Jimmy down for pictures if I have to. Drive Paul to a gathering at a friend's. Pick him up, drive him to church. Pick him up from church. Wonder where the day went and why I didn't get anything done except shop and drive people around.