Monday, Monday

... and a boring one at that. Changed my mobile number over to a Texas number; is this a sign that I am assimilating? I shudder to think ...

Gary left town today, headed for Peoria. He's there til Thursday, when he'll come home, spend a few days, and fly to Germany on Sunday. You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but I'm not. It does mean I don't have to cook much, which is fine with me.

After buying all sorts of fab fall clothes, it is supposed to be in the 70s, maybe even 80s, this week. I can't believe Thanksgiving is only two weeks away. We still have mosquitoes!

I need to find an outlet for my pent up energy. Maybe volunteer work. I even briefly — briefly, I repeat — considered signing up to teach a section of rhetoric & comp at the local community college. But I think I've gotten over that impulse. The thought of grading all those essays just about does me in. Plus I had a sick child home one day last week, which always brings me back down to earth on committing my time too much outside the house. I am trying to exercise more, with some success. But I am home an awful lot, by myself, and I think I need to get out more.

There. I've said it: Alone. It is how I spend my days. In some ways, it isn't all bad; I quite enjoy having my days to myself with no real pulls on my time. And sometimes I enjoy the quiet. But in my heart of hearts, I think I'm just not a solitary being. John Donne and all. And I think I'd feel better if I felt as if I were contributing more. Yes, editing a quarterly magazine makes some sort of impression on society, but not in the same way that doing some tutoring or even shelving library books at the schools would.

But I'll leave those answers for another day. Tonight my book awaits, and with Gary gone, I have two whole hours to read, uninterrupted. Somehow the evening is different than the daytime hours. How I can't quite say; it's a nebulous quality that only applies to the evenings, when somehow the laundry and dishes don't beckon. Evenings are meant for reading, or relaxing. I'm happy to do both.