The rain that has visted today, in short bursts, may have cleaned the air, but it did nothing to break the heat, and now stepping outside is like walking into a jungle. I keep hearing the line Gary Sinise uttered in Forest Gump to take care of your feet, in such conditions.

My feet, when I'm home alone, are generally bare, with flip-flops handy for emergencies, or trips outside when the ground is hot.

I don't think they'd be terribly useful in the jungle.

The steamy heat makes me glad we have powerful a/c, and the rain has kept a soft smile on my face all day, but what I'm most happy about today is…dusting.

Yes, dusting.
Maybe I'm really just getting high from Lemon Pledge, but dusting makes me remember being seven years old, and helping my grandmother with her usual chores, and listening as she sang to her violets.

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I wrote the world's most ballsy cover letter for a job application today. I'm not going to quote it, but I AM going to ask y'all to send good job karma for me, and hey, you're all invited to a virtual party at MissMeliss.com on Wednesday (tomorrow!) in honor of my 35th Birthday. While I am a little freaked about being that old (I can't be that old. My mother's only 29, after all.), I'm actually the kind of person who REVELS in her birthday.

Also, anything that comes with cake is a good thing, you know?

My happiness challenge item for Monday (posted after the fact, but, such is life): The guest room is so pretty and cozy that I almost want to sleep in it myself. It's so…uncluttered. I'm really tickled about having friends stay in it. I hope they like it, and are comfortable, and stuff.

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I feel wonderful
I'm tipping over backwards
I'm so ambitious
I'm looking back
I'm Running a race and you're the book I read so
Feel my fingers as they touch you arms
I'm Spinning around and I feel alright
The book I read was in your eyes
–“The Book I Read,” Talking Heads

Sunday was a day of small bits of happiness, and large chunks of sleepiness. I've been unnaturally tired lately, sleeping deeply, then needing more sleep in the middle of the day. It doesn't seem to be diet or exercise related, either.

But anyway, Sunday, and small bits of happiness.

– Our first time back to church after several weeks missed, welcomed back, invited to join events, felt like family. But weird songs no one really knew.

– Return to the cafe where we usually lunch, alas their espresso machine had ceased to function, but mmm, mango ceylon tea, a toasted bagel, and a fruit cup. Bliss.

– Sunday afternoon at the library. I love that the library has Sunday hours. Love that there are rockers in the reading lounge, and even though I won't drink the free coffee, it's cool that they have it. (I'm a snob, and coffee brewed who knows when, from an urn? Not. My. Thing.)

– Later Sunday afternoon, lying in bed, listening to Fuzzy's heartbeat and watching the sky. My friend Jennifer has a father who is weather consultant (doesn't that sound like fun?) and says the kind of weather we've been having, where we have all conditions of a storm, but never get rain, is called virga. I quite like it.

The book I read was in Fuzzy's eyes as he sang behind me, flirted with me across the table, and held me, while we watched the sky.

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He wasn't unattractive or poorly dressed, really, but sported a head full of styled knots, of the type only suitable in African American hair, that were somehow incongruous with his navy blue, ironed golf shirt, cotton dockers, and too-white sneakers.

We were at the next table, having our usual post-church lunch at a favorite cafe, but our conversation had dropped into nothingness, as happens sometimes when you've been married forever, and are more focussed on eating than enterainment. I think if we'd been talking we might not have noticed him.

He was alone, technically, though you'd never have guessed it from listening, for he was having an animated conversation, complete with tonal changes signifying both questions and answers, though, only his half was audible.

No, he wasn't on a cell phone.

Like Anne Shirley's “window friend,” this man's lunch companion was his own reflection in the tinted glass that faced the parking lot.

We were slightly creeped out, but he seemed happy enough, really.

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It's taken a year, but I finally got to meet . She's very sweet, and an amazing baker, and her husband and sister are much fun. (He, btw, is the third of the three amazing photographers I know, two of whom are local.)

So many things from Ms. Eclectic's blog and conversations clicked into place after spending an evening with them and their (and Ms. Eclectic's) friend whom they all call Missy J, and I'll refer to simply as J. In-jokes, references, etc. I really hope we'll get together again, both because we need more couple-friends, and because they're all such funny, smart, creative people.

I've been introduced to Shadows over Camelot which is described as a collaberative board game, but I prefer to describe it as a cooperative board game with light roleplay opportunities. It was fun, if a little confusing, and I'd love to play it again.

(I think this group might respond well to Munchkin, also.)

Anyway, it's 12:30, but, an evening out with great food, and new friends, and new experiences, and an extremely friendly uber-quiet dogling, is both “how I spent my Saturday evening” and my (late) Happiness Challenge #13.

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Tonight I'm happy for clean sheets. Nothing beats getting into a soft cozy bed, freshly made with soft cotton sheets.

I'm also happy that the gecko I accidentally stepped on while letting Cleo into the yard seems to be unharmed.

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Message to Fuzzy, left on his voicemail:

Hey, Fuzz, it's me.
Now, I need to tell you something, and you need to promise not to yell.

You know how the Alpha guy reminded us to refill the pool?
Well, I did…except…

I kind of over-filled it.
I kind of over-filled it a lot.

Specifically, I overfilled it enough that the deep end is sort of, well, overflowing.

And the raft managed to beach itself:

Love you!

Bye!

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TJ of Zazzafooky asked me some questions, which I'm answering here.

1. When you were a kid, did you have an imaginary friend? If so, describe.
   When I was two or three I had an imaginary friend named Taffy, and I know I blamed her for stuff I'd done, but I don't remember much more. When I was three, my grandparents gave me a poodle puppy, and we named her Taffy, and the imaginary Taffy disappeared, but it's a funny thing, the dog had all the same mischievous traits that the imaginary human had possessed.
2. What is the worst sinful thing you've ever done that you were never caught for.
   All the really awful things, like hiring hit-men when I was nine, or eating all the communion wafers when I was three, were discovered. The most sinful after that? I can't really answer this knowing that my mother and husband read my blog ;) Let's just say, I knew he was married, and I slept with him anyway, but I was very young, and very stupid at the time.
3. What is the greatest contribution you have made to society?
   Not breeding? (I kid.) I don't know. I've put my body on the line to help protect reproductive choice; I think that's important. I vote. I participate in things like the blogathon, which are attempts to do good work. I don't think it's really possible to know the impact of one person while they're still alive and relatively young.
4. Describe the worst boyfriend/mate you've ever had and what made you part.
   He was a jazz musician, with all the sterotypical fickleness that such a career implies. He made amazing music, but he also made some scary choices. The fact that he slept with men as well as women wasn't the deal breaker. The fact that he didn't tell me, was. And then, years later, he was busted for pedophelia, which has got to be an a-list item of fucked-up behavior. And yet, even the worst relationships still bring something good to your life in terms of lessons or new discoveries. I took away from it a deep and abiding love of jazz and blues, ballads and standards, and that still informs my musical choices today, fifteen years later.
5. What would people most NOT like about you? What would they most LIKE?
   NOT LIKE: I'm fundamentally pretty boring. I'm shy. I can be prickly. And I have a definite bossy streak. I clam up in large groups.
   
   LIKE: It truly is a wonderment that anyone likes me at all. I've no idea why. I can be generous, I guess. And sometimes I'm funny, but the shyness overwhelms that. You tell me?

David Sosnowski
* * * * *

I always enjoy a good vampire story, so when I saw Vamped staring at me from the library shelf, I had to take it home.

In this alternate future, the only humans left are farm-raised for uber-rich vampires (all the others have been vamped already), and a single box of Count Chocula goes for several hundred dollars on ebay. Then Marty, an eighty year old vampire, and the person who was responsible for the vamping of the world, finds a five year old mortal child on the run from one of the farms, and instead of killing her, or vamping her into a Screamer (as other child-vamps are called), he decides to raise her as his daughter.

Plot twists and romance are woven through the story, but the parts that I enjoyed most were the descriptions of societal changes – grocery stores selling mainly bleach and laundry detergent, and apartments built without toilets, for example.

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Queen Noor
* * * * *

I borowed this from a friend about a month ago because she seemed to really enjoy it, and I wasn't disappointed in the least, though I did take forever to really begin reading it, which is rare for me.

In most respects, this is a fairly straightforward tale of the way an American girl named Lisa ends up being Queen Noor of Jordan, and that part of the book was interesting enough. But the first-hand explanations of the political, cultural, and social climate in that part of the world, from the early seventies to today, was really what gripped me.

The events are all well-known to most of us.
The perspective is new, and interesting.

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