Have I been abducted by the cloud people, replaced with a Reya clone?

I'm looking forward to August.

Huh? I never look forward to August, what am I saying? In August for the first time this calendar year, all the inner planets will appear to move sunwise in the sky. They will be direct for a blessed three months, allowing me (and maybe you, too) to integrate the changes, twists and turns that life has taken this year. It has been a toad strangler in terms of intensity and sudden changes of direction, not just for me, but for many who have faced every kind of challenge.

I'm going shopping for clothes during the coming week.

WHAT? I hate shopping for clothes. I am perpetually between sizes (no matter whether I'm at the heavy or light point of my weight spectrum) which means everything is a little too big or a little too small. Petites are too short but regulars (misses? I don't know the jargon) are way too long, hence shopping is a fresh hell for me. But the thing is, I have no clothes. The paltry few things I wear over and over again, as the result of my environmentally friendly approach to doing laundry - as well as my laziness about getting the wash from washer to dryer fast enough - has resulted in a plague of mildew in my clothes. All my clothes. Everything.

Yeah.

First I soaked the clothes in vinegar, as suggested on some site on the internet. That did not work. Next I washed everything twice with lots of bleach and scalding hot water, dried the hell out of everything too, but to no avail. Mildew is insidious. What I realized this morning is that I'm going to have to start fresh, throw out all my clothes and begin again. If I had nice clothes I'm sure I would be aghast, but my clothes are ancient, ill fitting and ugly. I don't have to buy lots of clothes, just enough to get me through August. Then I'll focus on winter clothing.

I know it is likely to be frustrating, but I'm determined to buy the larger size, then take everything to the tailor a half block away, let the professionals make the clothes fit.

It's so extreme, throwing EVERYTHING away. I'm kind of into it.

Yesterday I began to imagine adding to the tattoo, to make it more approachable.

I'm thinking of more tattoo rather than less to soften its impact. It's so stark. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

REALLY? Good lord, what next?

June and July have been tower card months, bringing down the old paradigms, in my life at least. But after the tower card comes the grace of the Star. C'mon August! C'mon.

Shalom.