http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/jonathancoulton/~3/1h118VEbE0s/

http://www.jonathancoulton.com/?p=1464

I am not dead, I am just resting. Sometimes I don’t have anything to say, or at least anything that’s longer than 140 characters. My life has been a bit chaotic recently because earlier this year we moved into this new house, and over the last few months there’s been a lot of construction – drywall, tiles, table saws, plaster dust everywhere. I have no closet or real bedroom. Since April my wardrobe has consisted of whatever was in the one box of clothes that I unpacked and put next to the bed, which is in the room that is supposed to be the living room, but right now is the fake bedroom and soon will be my fake studio. All my gear is still mostly in boxes, though some of it is piled and tangled up on a desk that is covered with a plastic sheet. So that’s been nice. Not really the most inspiring environment for a sensitive creative soul like myself. Those of you who have lived through construction will perhaps understand: the chaos seeps into everything, so that every aspect of my life feels MAKESHIFT. Also the children repeatedly need to be fed and bathed and dressed and soothed, and they are frequently covered in plaster dust, or drinking paint, or eating drywall screws.

But I want to tell you a few things. Recent (and not so recent) shows have all been wonderful. And though I didn’t say anything about it here, the UK trip was pretty fantastic too. The last show of the year was last week in Brooklyn, and I look back now on yet another amazing stretch of touring, generously supported by all you people who continue to surprise me by showing up at all. I have made it through another year pretending to be a rock star. Thank you.

Thanks also for participating in my poll about the cruise idea. The investigation continues, but I can tell you that based on all of your very helpful feedback I’m now looking at options that are not as long and expensive. This means it probably won’t be this Summer, and it probably won’t be out of Seattle, so you can all resume planning your Summer vacations without me. I would really like to do it, I just need to find the right situation. I’ll keep you all posted and give you plenty of advanced warning.

Already it’s time to start talking about touring plans for 2010, and if you look over there on the shows page you’ll see it starts in mid January with Orlando, St. Petersburg, Atlanta, and then continues with San Francisco, and then Dallas, Austin, (Houston?), and LA and Seattle and Portland and yet another run at Vancouver. I’ll write a proper mass email soon, and of course you can subscribe to the mailing list or the RSS feed so that you are certain to hear about all the details.

Some new songs would be nice, don’t you think? It’s been a long dry spell for me and I’m not sure exactly why. No doubt part of it is the seeping chaos situation described above, but I’m sure it’s more complicated than that. I look back at some of the Thing a Week songs that happened in spite of whatever inconvenient circumstances I was dealing with at the time, and many of them are much better than they have any right to be. A few of them are great. Sometimes it’s hard to imagine that I’ll ever get into that headspace again, that desperate, wide-open, WTF state of mind that leads to something like “Re: Your Brains,” which quite honestly I can no longer remember writing. The more distant those acts of creation become, the more they seem like accidents or miracles, things that happened to somebody else. It’s daunting sometimes. I worry that I can’t compete with me. And I know the way through it is to write, or as Merlin says, to make the clackity noise. If there’s one thing I learned from Thing a Week it’s that, but my lizard brain continues to resist the solution. And I can come up with any number of excuses, but they aren’t real; I haven’t been writing because I haven’t been writing. The why of it isn’t nearly as important as the physical act of sitting down and getting to work.

Whoops, gotta go, Robocop 2 is on!

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/2009/12/sunday-secrets_13.html

A wedding band came inside this envelope.




PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people
mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard.





-----Email Message-----
She was pretty, she used to climb trees. She made jewelry for her family for Christmas. She was the single mother of a son she loved. She tried her hardest, but just like the rest of us, she made mistakes. And we forgave her for them, just like we forgive you. 


-----Email Message-----
I'm a Firefighter/First Responder, and I google their names because I couldn't save them.


-----Email Message-----

I work in the ICU and Google almost all of my patients. I found out one patient adored her granddaughters more than anything, so I made sure that her granddaughters were allowed in before anyone else.




-----Email Message-----
I baked Christmas cookies with my friend the other day and I'm really scared he's going to think that I sent this in.














-----Email Message-----
I stood right where this picture was taken on the only hill in Paris this weekend and that's when I decided that I wasn't going to just accept who I've become, but instead work to make myself a better person--the one I always wanted to be, but never quite had the courage to achieve.


-----Email Message-----

The Basilica of the Sacred Heart has been the destination for my future
pilgrimage ever since my dad played the John Denver song "A Country Girl
in Paris". I know for certain that something amazing is waiting for me up
upon Montmartre, and I hope - more than anything - that what I find there
is self-acceptance. "For even in her sorrow, there's something in her
eyes.."

-----Email Message-----
My boyfriend makes me use a wheelchair. He says it's the only way he's attracted to me. I wish I could fly away.













See More Secrets. Follow PostSecret on Twitter.









PostSecret Events for 2010 are being arranged now. Enter your email below for a full schedule of dates, schools and performance centers.

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/2009/12/wall-street-journal-postsecret-video.html

During the book tour PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death and God reached #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List. Thank you.


Order Your Copy Today



-----Email Message-----

Hi Frank,

Last Saturday, my daughter went to the funeral of her 21-year-old friend, Jeff, who committed suicide. I made a donation in his memory to the Kristen Brooks Hope Center. I noted that on the donation form. In today's mail, I received a sympathy card from Reese Butler. I was stunned.

He thanked me and offered assistance to Jeff's family. I am touched beyond words that Reese took the time to send this card and his words of encouragement. I will forward the card to Jeff's family. Please continue to get the word out about the work the Kristen Books Hope Center does... and maybe there will be fewer of us grieving this time next year.

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/2009/12/sunday-secrets-coming-later-today.html

I just returned home from a long book tour and am going through a week's worth of postcards now. Sunday Secrets will be up later today.





The 2009 PostSecret Event tour is also over. PostSecret Events for 2010 are being arranged now. Enter your email below for a full schedule of dates and locations.

2010 PostSecret Events

Follow PostSecret for Updates Today & More News Twitter.





During the book tour PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death and God reached #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List. Thank you.


Order Your Copy Today

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/2009/12/sunday-secrets.html

You may find the brave voices captured in this short five minute film haunting, shocking and humorous. In some of their faces you'll see joy, anguish and grace as they trust you with their confession.

PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death and God
</p>
Order Your Copy Today



PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people
mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard.












-----Email Message-----
When I went to my first gynecologist appointment at age 18, it was with a female.  Since she was part of a family practice, she had also recently examined my mom, and when she tried to make girl talk, she told me, "Wow! Deep vaginas must run in the family".  

Then, she sang "come out, come out wherever you are" to my cervix.  I'm 26 now, and I have only been to male gynecologists since then.  Whew.


-----Email Message-----
I always figured the male gynecologist paid more attention in school (it's the vagina.. come on..).













-----Email Message-----
About 3 hours ago I wanted to do just that, skip Christmas for once, but my best friend just talked to me, and I do not think she knows the impact she just had on my perspective...












-----Email Message-----
I am going home for Christmas. I'm scared my family will realize I'm addicted to cocaine again.  

Even if you don't post this secret Frank, please post a trusted drug help hotline on your site. It's so hard for us to go home at this time, because even if we want to get better, we often just can't do it in time.  We just remember what we used to be like, and how Christmas used to be.   

Christmas is the hardest time to be an addict.


-----Email Message-----
1-800-662-HELP, which provides referrals to substance abuse treatment 24/7/365. It's run by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Good luck - the holidays can be tough, but they are also a time of forgiveness.


-----Email Message-----
As someone who loves an addict, all my family wants for Christmas is for our addict to come home, and let us help. It would be the best Christmas gift ever. We are waiting with open arms for you.





See More Secrets. Follow PostSecret on Twitter.




-----Email Message-----
Whenever I am wearing clothing and shopping in the store I got it from, I secretly hope they will give me a discount.





-----Email Message-----
Dear Frank,

Last year I mailed you two postcards, "Next year, I want to get my tree with you" and "I will not wear mistletoe to work," both referring to the same crush.

I was bowled over just now to see that someone had wondered how my first secret turned out.

This year, I will celebrate the holiday with someone wonderful . . . but he's not the guy I wrote those secrets about. Even if I hadn't fallen in love this year, this Christmas would find me fairly indifferent to the person I mentioned in that postcard.

Time work wonders.


-----Email Message-----
But if you left it up to me
Everyday would be
A holiday from real

Oh, it's a picture of perfection
Ah, and the postcards gonna read. . .











PostSecret on NPR's Interfaith Voices and Here and Now




Thanks to everyone who courageously shared their secret on the website, in the film or for the new book.

PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death and God
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