I want to thank those of you who have submitted or are planning to submit a guest post. It will help so much in these final weeks before my deadline. I have been so encouraged at your support and willingness to help. I will have my first guest post up sometime next week. I won’t always announce that fact, but there is something I just had to say about this girl. Y’all. Look at this:

That’s Kimberly, my first guest poster from Find Time for Tea on the left and Kimberly Williams from Father of the Bride on the right. I know. They have the same name. What? And if you disagree with me and try to tell me they do not look alike, I will simply tell you that I am skilled in these things. I see numbers as people, letters as colors and movie stars in everyone I meet. It is a gift.

So look out for Kimberly sometime next week. I would have just mentioned this at the end of her post, but I didn’t want to junk it all up. Carry on with your regular weekend activities. I went to the rich people Goodwill with my mom and sister today. I bought lots of shirts. Good times.

Since my post about the circle calendar, I have read a little more about synesthesia. I discovered another thing I do that I never really realized until now: my numbers have a personality. Not only do I see them in color in my mind, I see them as people. I know. But I also know some of you do, too. Here is my cast of characters, in the order in which they appear.

While One is young and stubborn (he doesn’t like to share his toys),

Two seems more compliant, a sweet, loving little boy.

Three sounds sweet and girly, red ribbons in her hair;

Four wears a tuxedo and clearly has black hair.

Five is round and jolly, named Santa Claus or Clyde,

Six is rather boring, green with envy, filled with pride.

Seven is eccentric, transgendered and quite kind;

Eight is wise beyond her years; elegant, refined.

Nine is strong, responsible, and supportive of her lover;

And Ten, though courting Nine by day, at night flirts undercover.

I’m already regretting hitting publish on this one. But it’s worth exposing in the hopes that I find others. So speak up. And don’t even try to tell me that 10 is trustworthy because he most certainly. is. not. He is green and he is bad news.

Last night, I read/watched this post by Laura Frantz. In it, she describes how she recently discovered that her daughter associates each letter of the alphabet with a color. So I’m thinking, Doesn’t everyone do that? But when Laura seemed surprised about it, I thought, Hmm, maybe everyone doesn’t do that.

So then I looked up the super fancy word that she says that is (grapheme – color synesthesia) and realized there are all different types of this -esia. One is called spatial-sequence synesthesia and relates with how people see numbers in their mind, or/also the days and months of the year. If you don’t do it, you’ll have no idea what I’m talking about. But to me, the months of the year go around an imaginary, slightly oval clock face, counter clockwise.

If I were better at graphicy stuff, I would have made this tilted in space, where the winter months are slightly higher than the summer ones. My view is standing on top of each month and moving through each one as time passes. So in January, I look down to see June. I have written them pretty much as I see them, including the size. I would have included their colors, but I got lazy. I put a star between December and January because there is actually a huge gap between the two, in my mind.

When I think of springtime, I think to myself Wow, I can’t believe we’re so far to the left! When I think of it being May, I picture us sliding down May right into June. August is always capitilized and is kind of a line, up a down (even though it sits in a circle). In September, I always think of how we’re moving back up. October is bigger than November, and December, January and February are always kind of crammed together (though separated by a huge gap, of course).

Laura tells me the letters-as-a-color thing runs in families. Maybe this does, too? Do you do anything like this? What are the colors of your alphabet? How do you see the year? Do you think I’m crazy?

Worry is a thief, Fear is a liar, and Anxiety is their trembling, furrowed browed baby. They show up rude without an invite, that crying baby keeping me up all night. I’ve been coddling her too much lately. It’s time to put her down and kick that dysfunctional family out. Are you sick of me talking about them yet? Because I sure am. Thankful today for new mercies, different perspectives and a safe place to hide..