Tappity, tap, tap.

So, I'm sitting in my office, and there's a tap, tap, tapping on the window.  I glance over my left shoulder, and there, a silly grin on her face is...my muse.

She's wearing a yellow slicker, and one of those sea men's hats that have a large brim that sags over the ears.  It's bright yellow, too and rain drops occasionally plop off the brim some of which land on the tip of her nose.  In her hand is a very large (though empty) margarita glass.  She kind of shrugs and points a finger toward my patio door.

I nod, get out of my chair and amble to the door.  "Taaaaaaaaa. Ddddddaaaaaaaa!"  She sing-songs, throws out her left foot as though she is just finishing some kind of a tap dance and loudly announces..."I'M BACK!"

"Well, la-dee-da," says I. "Where the blankity, blank, blank have you been?"  I admit my tone of voice was not exactly friendly in tone.

She plops herself onto the sofa slicker and all, as though she owns the place, and hasn't been gone for a very long time.

"Oh, here and there." She sighs while checking her fingernails and putting her feet up.

I'm starting to get just a little hot under the collar.  "That's all you have to say for yourself, while I've been here wandering around with a head filled with nothing but spider webs and dust bunnies."

Suddenly, SHE'S indignant.  She literally jumps off the sofa arms akimbo, staring me down.

I feel like a four year old caught putting a pilfered cookie in my mouth.

Her eyes are a flame.  "You know what?????  This is all your fault!  I left because you no longer had time for me.  You boo, hooing all around the place...poor me, poor me....I have to sell the house....I have to do this; I need to do that....boooooo, hooooooo.  Oh....there are strangers in my home, they're rude, and crude, and don't like what they're seeing....there's repairs to make, and tests to get done...and ooooooohhhhhh, let's not forget those pages and pages of questions to fill out....make sure you don't tell a lie...boooooo, hooooooo, sob, sob...sign an amendment here an amendment there.  Geeze!"

"Then, there's the days and days of packing, all those boxes to tote hither and yon.  And, lest we forget, there are retirement villages to check out and apartments to look for.  Did ya think of me, did ya...did ya? I don't know how Frankie managed to stick around.  She's gotta' be a saint."

I'm stunned.  I'm speechless.

Then she says, "Did ya bother to tell me where you moved....noooooooo.  Thanks to Karen she finally read your last blog and made an attempt to find me.  I didn't want to come back and I told her so, but she finally made me feel sorry for you.......(She sighs again quite wearily) so here I am.”

I confess I feel awful, even worse I realize she's right.  I did make her leave; I ignored her, had absolutely no time for her and didn't even notice she was gone for months, and months, and months. I have a lot of apologizing to do and a lot of lost time to make up.  So, to start I fixed a slow cooker batch of Chile for dinner, and a Jim Beam on the rocks to top off the evening.  Tomorrow I'm going to find time to write, even if it is just a few lines in the Thinking of You card I'm presently creating.

Oh dear muse, I'm so glad you are back...I promise, promise to be better at writing....puuuullllease, don't ever run away again.