and, really, i have no other choice except to accept.

i’m all geared-up: laser-like steely gaze, my favorite headphones, and this brownie here. [sugar = fuel = good in this equation, fyi.]

i have several work things that need my attention today, and i intend to focus solely on them without stopping!*

*except to get more food.

*and to pet the dog.

*and to read my book.

*and to get a drink to wash down the food.

*plus the requisite bathroom trip.

*and then touring around the internet for a few minutes so i can be “updated” before getting back to work (so necessary!).

*and to procrastinate, particularly by noodling around with photos with captions about how i’m totally going to focus on work today.

*and that pedicure that i promised i’d get with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law.

*but, wait — brilliant plan — i’ll put the pedicure on my to-do list, and thus can count it as getting things done.  like the to-do list equivalent of a tax-writeoff. 

*my plan is so brilliant, i’m rewarding myself with a little break.

then i’ll get back to work.

promise.

i have so many things to say, to think about, to write about, but they are all bouncing around my pinball head (pinhead?  hmm, i don’t think that’s right) at subatomic speeds and i can’t seem to slow down enough to capture them and write them all down.

[side note: do you listen to car talk?  you really should.  at very least, you would understand the title of this post.  but, perhaps you have better things to do with your time.  things like reading inane blather on blogs. wink.]

anyway, on this monday, even after i’ve gone to the gym for the first time in a month since the terrible treadmill puffyfoot incident, i am still very lethargic.  here are some things getting my dragging muffler through the day:

1. chobani greek yogurt

this is my current go-to breakfast now that it’s getting a bit too warm for oatmeal for me.

2. the moth

stories.  good ones.  not too long.  from real people.

sometimes, just sometimes, i don’t want to listen to music.

i just want someone to tell me a story.

3. lilacs

the lilac bush in front of our house is in bloom, and it smells so good i will almost volunteer to take the trash out because i have an excuse to walk right by it an extra time during the day.

we’ve had some great spring breezes recently, and it carries the lilac scent down the road.

i like to cut a few and put it in a bowl for my desk.

it’s like dessert for my nose.

*    *    *    *    *

happy monday, loves.  what’s getting you through today?

after careful consideration, the recipe had been identified as:

• equal parts old carpet and basement mustiness ala old books.
• sprinkle with a bit of old cat urine, cleaned up, but lingering just a bit.
• mix in gallons of rain for an essence of humidity/wet dog.

yes, we shouted.  that must be it.
let’s replace the carpet, we said.
and we did, with cream colored tile that looks stunning.
let’s air out the basement with fans in the windows, we added.
helped some.
but wait…something is still lingering.  i can smell it near the head of my bed, when trying to sleep.
ugh.
we installed an atomizer with thieves oil, a pumpkin-pie smelling oil that has natural antibiotic properties.

now i have thanksgiving/funk smell.
booooo.

weeks pass.

until today.

what’s the last part of the recipe for the funky basement smell, you ask?

oh yes, the last ingredient discovered today: a mouse, dead FOR MONTHS, embedded in old boxes in the crawl space; its smell permeating through the walls.

yesssss, that’s it.

ick.

this is a break, in every sense of the word.
the closest i can get to mini-vacation.
for one hour.

and then, we will resume the regularly scheduled [read: papers, chaucer, reading, reading, reading, highlighting] programming.

the west wing.

gllllllorious, because if you know anything about me, you know that i am experiencing insomnia and also that the west wing is on my all-time top five television shows.

and although i own all the seasons, and can watch any episode anytime i want, it always seems like a little present when it comes on tv and i have to watch.

i feel like that about saturday movies too, sometimes.

i’ll say that i was asleep, but then the boy called.  and he innocently asked one question about my birthday, and then we talked for the next 3 hours.

and argued.  or, our version of arguing, at least.

do your arguments ever start with literally ONE innocent question?

and i am not a big arguer/fighter.

but once i had an argument with an ex-boyfriend about whether the tour de france was a legitimate bike race.

it looked an awful lot like the “is she hot?” debate in the prince family paper episode of the office, now that i think of it.

but it was the silliest fight i think i’ve had.

i’m rambling now.

but, nothing happened to it today.

i also didn’t get a chance to eat it.

and now i just stepped on my bag on the floor, in the dim light, and heard a pop.

it took about 10 seconds for me to realize what that noise was.

vanilla yogurt.   in my non-washable bag.  yogurtwallet, yogurtlipgloss, yogurtpod.

guess what i’m not eating for the next few days?

how come i can’t have any of the good kind of blocks?

building blocks.

walk around the blocks.

block party.

sigh.

edit: just after i wrote this, i clicked on a page of one of my favorite blogs and this image appeared.  this is a good kind of block, the kind that paves the way to my charming boy; my dear.

Pointing out spelling errors is how you tell a boy you like him, right?”

(via)

that’s what i do.  just ask him.

why?

this post, it should win a pulitzer.