I know, this is fascinating.  My point might be that I always want to be organized, and I can be about most things, but only short term.  You can see where my priorities lie.  Everything else takes more effort that I want to put in.

I don’t really know where I’m going with this.  Possibly nowhere.  And that seems like a good place to stop.

Go see Bridget. She had an alien encounter (and made Cleveland look gorgeous).  Then watch this. (The two things are not at all related.)  I laughed so hard I nearly cried.

Not a real statue.

See?

You may not know this about me, but I have a sign on my forehead that says “Pick me!  I’ll play along!”  I love street performers.  I’ll always stop to watch.  And 9 times out of 10, I get picked out of the crowd to participate in some way.  (Or four times out of the five I can remember off the top of my head, if you want to get specific.  The fifth time I can think of it was Sandwich Stealer who was chosen)  I love it.  This past Sunday, as I was leaving the aquarium to go to Harvard (and before I couldn’t find the State Street T station), I wandered around Quincy Market/Fanueil Hall and stopped to watch a street performer.  Of course.  Did I get picked out of the crowd?  Yes.  Do I have proof?  Yes!  Because I asked some nice lady to take pictures.  Are they any good?  No.  But here’s one anyway.

I handed those flowers up to him and then did weird things with my hand before catching that pillow and throwing it back to him. Fascinating, right?

I shouldn’t go to bookstores when I’m away from home.  Unless I’m out of reading material, of course.  And if I’m driving, I think it’s okay.  So really, it’s just when I’m flying that I shouldn’t do it.  Boston has lots of bookstores, lots of used bookstores, and lots of good bookstores.  I’ve been in four of them.  And one of them was on a sidewalk near Harvard.  See?

I found four books there, $2 each.  Then I went to Harvard Book Store.  New books upstairs, used downstairs, and bought a few more.  THEN I went to one near where I’m working and bought three more Lawrence Block mysteries (I’m in the middle of one of them now).  And I have to fit them all into the two bags I’m already checking to get them home.  No more!  I’ll refrain from entering any more bookstores as long as I’m here.

Back to what’s made the last day and a half bearable (and, you know, good).  Mom, Dad, and Gaby drove up from Corey and Candy’s place yesterday to spend the afternoon and evening with me on their way north.  Mom and Dad have been all over the south over the last two weeks, and I’m ridiculously happy they realized that coming through Atlanta wouldn’t put them too far out of their way.  I was done with work yesterday right about 1pm, and I wasn’t expecting Mom and Dad to arrive until about 4:30, so I went to the aquarium.  It was cool and everything, but I think Baltimore and Boston have better ones.  Not at all the peaceful afternoon I’d imagined when I thought about going to the aquarium.  Yesterday was the last day of school for many of the districts in Atlanta, and it looked like most of them let out early and shipped the students to the aquarium.  NOT quiet, pretty crowded, but while I didn’t get to experience the whole meditation-while-looking-at-fishies thing, I did have perfect timing to see all the animals get fed.  I was checking out the otter exhibit (they were all napping in a big pile) when an aquarium employee appeared and tossed some food at them.  They bolted out of that pile like they’d been faking the nap and scurried all over the habitat scooping up the food, doingcutelittlehumanthingswiththeirhands. Where was my camera?  That’s right.  Hotel room.  But it was fun to watch.  Oh, one thing that is totally cool about the Georgia Aquarium is how they’ve put half of the tanks and exhibits over the heads of the people walking around.  So in the Georgia swamp area, you’re wandering around looking at frogs and snakes and things (this one little boy had camped out in front of the tree frog tank and made it his business to show me every single slimy, slithery thing in there), and then something catches your eye and you look UP.  And above me, right there over my head, was a huge tank of water with a glass bottom, and a two-foot long catfish looking down at me.  There were all kinds of fish swimming over my head.  And that’s just the river exhibit.  When we got to the ocean part (Ocean Voyager, maybe?), the track leads you into this tunnel that goes under and through what they say is the largest aquatic exhibit in the world.  Lots of sharks, giant grouper, a manta ray, and four half-grown whale sharks.  And lots of other fish.  LOTS of other fish.  After you get through the tunnel (which is just SO cool – seriously the fish and the sharks are swimming next to you and over you and it’s SO COOL – they had hammerhead sharks and the kind with noses that look like chainsaws.  I can never remember what those are called.), you end up in a room with a window onto the exhibit that’s the size of a movie screen.  I got there just in time to watch them feed these fish, which they do by pumping food in through a pipe.  Everything in the tank zeroes in on this one pipe, right in front of the glass, I got to watch the feeding frenzy.  Then, while I was in the tropical reef exhibit, they fed those fish, too.  It was neat to watch, but I think I’ve had my fill of watching fish eat.  After a couple of hours, I’d seen everything (minus the exhibits with an extra charge), so I went back to the hotel.  About an hour later, I got a phone call from Gaby telling me they were checking in, so I met them in front.  Where Gaby got shy for about five seconds.  Then she got over it.  I can’t blame her.  I think it’s been a year since I saw her last.  And at four and a half, I think she can be forgiven for not immediately recognizing an aunt she’s seen all of five times (now six) in her life.  She’s the funniest little kid.  We went to dinner at PF Chang’s (they have a reliably gluten-free menu for Dad, and besides, they’re good), and she started to fade a little.  At first, she wanted to sit with the girls, so they three of us crowded into one side of the booth with Dad all by himself on the other side.  After a while, she disappeared under the table after a crayon she’d dropped, and when she came back up, she’d moved to Dad’s side.  Mom bagged up the leftovers and left them in the middle of the table.  I started making faces at Gaby, who gave me a blank (tired) look and then slowly slid the bag over until it blocked her view of me.  Cracked me up.  And she insisted on sleeping with me instead of Grammy and Poppy last night.  I guess Mom and Dad had suggested it to her earlier in the day, but we all expected her to back out once it came down to it.  Not Gaby.  I was about to drop and she was on her second wind (and an hour behind me, since she was coming from Central time), but even knowing that if she stayed with me we were going to bed right now didn’t deter her.  So we headed across the hall to my room after Mom made her brush her teeth and she settled onto the right side (if you’re on it) of the giant bed.  I got ready for bed and climbed in, and she scooted over to the middle so I could read her the two stories she’d been promised.  After two stories, I was putting myself to sleep, so we turned off the light (leaving the bathroom light on and the light over by the door so it wouldn’t get too dark).  She tossed and turned a bit (and was still in the middle of the bed, leaving me less than a third on the left), and then decided she didn’t want sleep at the head of the bed.  She wanted to sleep at the foot of the bed, under the comforter that was folded up there.  I didn’t care, so she moved and tossed and turned down there.  And then demanded another story.  And another.  And another.  So I made one up, which apparently didn’t go over well, because she asked for princess stories after that, particularly Ariel and Belle.  So with my eyes closed and my words slurring (I think), I managed slightly butchered and completely condensed renditions of “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast” (the Disney versions, naturally).  At some point, she moved back up to the head of the bed, in the middle, sprawled out at an angle, and fell asleep.

I didn’t sleep well.

But she’s so cute!  I can forgive a lot for a cute face and a little girl who tells me she loves me without any prompting.  So yesterday was fun, and this morning, too, and I’m always happy to hang out with Mom and Dad.

On top of THAT, when I checked in online for my flight to Boston today, Air Tran offered me an upgrade to business class for a very reasonable price, and I took it.  So here I am, sitting in the very front row of the business class section, next to the window, with free wi-fi.  I’ve just finished one of those cute little airline bottles of chardonnay and two milano cookies, I’m listening to The Living Sisters (although I’m on the second round of the album and I’m thinking about switching to something else), and I’ll have all day tomorrow in Boston to do whatever I want before I have to work on Monday.  I think the aquarium is calling my name.    The one in Boston has penguins!

So, even though I’d rather be home (or be going to Boston on vacation with John), I can make the best of it.  It helps that I ran this morning.  Makes me feel like I’m holding my own in my battle against getting fat.

Enough of this. I’m going back to my book.  I just started a mystery by Tana French called In The Woods.

I’m tired and not feeling particularly chatty tonight, so I’m going to read in the bathtub and go to bed.  Hope you don’t mind.

In honor of John, here are a few unrelated items:

As I dragged my suitcases from the baggage carousel to the train for the rental car counters, I followed a woman leading a doggie train across the street.  Why didn’t I take a picture?  I’m an idiot, that’s why.  The woman had a rolling suitcase behind her, and attached to that, she had what looked like an overnight bag on wheels with mesh sides.  The top was open and there were two little white dogs (Westies, maybe) checking out the surroundings.  One was seated with just its head poking out, but the other was up on its hind legs, leaning on the front of the bag, craning its neck in every direction.  One of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.  They looked like they were riding on the caboose of a little train.

My last rental car (a Kia Spectra), while economy, had power everything.  You know, the normal things (windows, locks, etc.).  This one, a Chevy Aveo, has power NOTHING.  Can you remember the last time you were in a car without power locks?  Without power windows?  My first car didn’t have power locks or windows, but it was an ’88 Corolla hatchback, not a 2009 Chevy four-door sedan, and I haven’t been in that car since…1997.

I finished the Lawrence Block book, The Burglar in the Library, last night before I went to sleep.  That’s right – I liked it SO much I couldn’t put it down.  Started it on the plane, finished it before I went to sleep.  And as soon as I can find a used bookstore around here that’s open when I’m able to get there, I plan to buy several more of his books.  And there are lots of used bookstores in Atlanta.

I started watching Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School tonight, a movie I’m pretty sure John isn’t interested in.  I am, but I can’t watch it now.  It’s about a guy (Robert Carlyle) getting over the death of his wife.  WHY would I want to watch a gut-wrenching, soul-twisting, tearjerker of a movie about a guy who’s lost his wife when I can’t be home with John?  I wouldn’t, that’s right, so I’m turning it off.  I’m going to curl up in bed with the next Dresden Files book ’cause a little light vampire-killing (or whatever monster he’ll go after in this book) is just what I need.

I finished my Dresden Files book while waiting to board.  I have another one with me, but I’m going to try a new mystery writer first.  New to me.  Has anyone heard of Lawrence Block?  I read about his books somewhere (almost everything I buy comes from a recommendation now), but I can’t remember where.  So far so good.  The book is called “The Burglar in the Library”, the main character owns a used bookstore, and he’s heading to an English-style bed and breakfast to look for a possibly non-existent rare book.  Just my cup of tea.

Yesterday, John and I went to Erik’s place to help him celebrate getting his Masters degree in International Commerce and Policy.  (Erik, did I get it right?)

Hey, ten-minute warning.  I’ll finish that later.

Much later:

I’m in my hotel room after a trip to a nail salon (yay for pretty toes) and a trip to Kroger for breakfast and lunch supplies for the week.  Food and relaxing are at the top of my list for right now, so, um, bye.

I had this delicious shrimp etouffee at Copeland’s of New Orleans for dinner tonight.  And then, because I couldn’t resist, I got the cheesecake napoleon (cheesecake with layers of pudding cake on either side) with bananas foster as a topping to go.  It looks and smells like the best thing ever, but I haven’t tried it yet.  Typing is keeping me away from it and I’m starting to think that’s not the best arrangement.  Which means typing will have to go.  It’s calling my name!

Updated: Who cares about cheesecake?  Not me.  It’s the pudding cake drenched in whatever bananas foster is made of that I can’t get enough of.  SO good.  And SO not good for me.

I found that link because I’m in the middle of organizing my bookmarks.  Again.  (And that means I have to go to every single bookmarked site to see if I want to keep it.)  When I organized them last time, I put all the blogs I read in one folder, in alphabetical order.  When I have free time, I go through the list in order.  But I’ve had so little free time lately that I haven’t been getting far down the list, and I’ve inadvertently been missing some of the sites I used to read daily just because their names start with letters in the second half of the alphabet.  Then I feel bad for neglecting them because that reminds me of always being stuck at the back of the line (for lunch, for assemblies, for field trips) in the elementary school because my last name started with an S.  Now my last name starts with a B, but that hardly matters ’cause no one asks us to line up in alphabetical order anymore.  Anyway, I’m over that, but I don’t want to treat my favorite blogs the same way.  So now, my favorites are in a Daily Blog folder, separate from the rest.  Yes, I play favorites.  And I need to update my blogroll, but that will have to happen on a day that’s not so beautiful.  Because why am I inside?  It’s gorgeous out there!

I have to shower (ran six miles this morning – go me!) and then go to the library.  I need books on CD for my super-long commute (now that I’m not carpooling anymore).

Also, I am totally losing my mind.  There was something else I planned to write about, but I have NO idea what it was.