this is a shoutitout to the people the people, the people the people who are going to make it into my one woman extravaganza tribute to all of the people and peeps that I have known in my lifetime who have made a difference who have changed me changed the path that I was on diverted the mud on the beach into a beautiful new river that empties into the sea the people who have touched or cajoled or moved or guffawed with me who showed me by their weird and thoughtful strange and witty, odd and unique, rhythms and rhymes and funky dimes and nickels and sense how to be free to be me and you and them and not look back at last week when I may not have been so up or down but there's no point no point no point in looking back unless you are looking back to revel in the fact that you are still alive and your neurons are working well enough to recount anything anyway no need to belabor or beat a dead donkey about it just live it and breathe it and remember it and see it and try to hold on and savor it and slow it down and slow slow down because there is no point in hurling forward when you can just slow down enough to a kids' pace a snail's pace and let your fingers get dirty in the dirt and slow down enough to forget what time it is and be outside and stop checking your gadgets and just be be be be be be because it's good to get no sleep once in a while and it's good to get drunk too and it's good to dance and it's good to have coffee and it's good to feel sore and tired and it's good to laugh a lot and it's good to have lots of good comebacks so you can rest up and ease up in between the onslaught of nonsense that will inevitably come your way so slow down, ease up on that horsie and enjoy the long, slow ride up that twilight hill towards the blackberries and the thrills of your imagination gone wild along with the girls on spring break who take no prisoners in their wake but they set a new standard for what women will take for their own pleasure and namesake and that's what is at stake after all.... a chocolate ganache coconut on your eyelash cake.