On a morning from a Bogart movie, in a country where they turn back time...

Finally watched Running With Scissors the other night. Excellent book, excellent soundtrack, not so great movie. But the soundtrack....brought me back to a nostalgic place in my memory as soon as I heard the first haunting notes of Al Stewart's The Year of the Cat. I'm in my sister's tiny trailer park bedroom. It's 1978. There's a blizzard outside, but it's warm in my sister's little bedroom. Al Stewart's voice and the haunting, etherial melody of that song waft through the room. I feel safe and stand on my sister's feet while she dances. We laugh.

She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running
Like a watercolour in the rain
Don't bother asking for explanations
She'll just tell you that she came
In the year of the cat

That song will get me every time. Hits me right in the stomach, takes my breath away.

Well, she looks at you so cooly
And her eyes shine like the moon in the sea
She comes in incense and patchouli...

Today, the 35th Iditarod started. Another thing that stirs my heart, takes my breath away, like nothing else. I want that. Someday...