Rain and Passion

You may (or may not) recall that back in March when I was suffering from a serious Maine-in-winter-induced malaise, one of my first steps in pulling myself out of my funk was going to see the one-woman play The Passion of the Hausfrau.

Now we are in June, and the sun has not graced us with its presence for a solid week (our generator kicked on yesterday, and if you live in a solar house you know the significance of a generator running on the SECOND LONGEST DAY of the YEAR, if not, suffice it to say that it means Armageddon is surely nigh!), and I've found myself in need of another pick-me-up (yes, the bright duvet does provide a certain amount of color therapy, but I'm talking big guns here), so I abandoned my charges (including my 18-year-old brother who arrived the previous day--more on that later) Friday night and again made my way south, again in the company of same friend, for The Passion of the Hausfrau: Motherhood Illuminated book launch party, to which I had received an exclusive invitation (only by virtue of being a Hausfrau Mutha-zine subscriber, but hey I'll take what I can get).

Hausfrau was the first in the mama-zine genre to which I had been introduced and it served as a major inspiration in starting my own zine, GEMINI (see sidebar) and is still one of my favorites. One of the advantages of being a zine creator, is trading zines with other zine makers. Last year I got up the gumption to send a copy of GEMINI to Hausfrau (in a desperate plea for affirmation) and am now we trade! How awesome. She even wrote "I heart Gemini" in her inscription in my book. Oh yeah, the book. It's fantastic! Yay for dismal rainy weekends--I was able to sneak off and read bits and pieces while the boys (there are now five in my home) entertained themselves playing in the dirt, driving remote control cars and rave dancing. I finished the last chapter cozy in bed yesterday morning--so funny, heartbreaking, real and inspirational. An absolutely necessary addition to the Motherhood Literary Canon.

Sooo...if you're in need of a seasonal pick-me-up, or just need a good read, get thee to thy nearest independent book store and purchase thyself a copy.