We’ve never really made a big deal out of the 4th of July.  I think we’re too lazy.  A couple or three years ago, we had some people over and played with sparklers, but that hardly took any effort.  Last year, we tagged along with other people’s plans and spent the afternoon at the pool and watched the fireworks in Falls Church (really good fireworks).  This year we had tentative plans to do that again, but then the band got a gig, and that ended up taking up pretty much the whole day.

Tomorrow will be all about trying to keep cool.  It’s supposed to get ridiculously hot, but I don’t have to do anything that’ll keep me outside.  I think I can safely skip running.

Anyway, we have deliberate plans to do nothing this weekend.  I could see myself going for an early morning run, but only if I happen to wake up early enough (’cause it’s HOT here).  We might try to get rid of some of the crap in the basement, but that might take too much effort.  I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

I did get to see a little bit of Duluth.  I found a jogging path that goes right along the lake, and I ran across Duluth’s aerial lift bridge (while it was down, of course).

So that was neat.  I guess.  I’m sorry.  I have NO enthusiasm for this town and I’m going to stop apologizing for it.  I don’t have to like every place I go.  I do feel like I did my part in supporting local businesses, though.  Today, anyway.  I had breakfast at the New London Cafe, which was adorably cute.  (Yes, you read that right.  It wasn’t just adorable, not just cute, but adorably cute.)  I wish I’d been able to get there for lunch, but I didn’t have enough time.  I liked them so much that I just went to their website and sent them a message.  ‘Cause I’m nice like that.  On my way home from work, I stopped at this used bookstore I’d been driving by every day.  I tried to resist, but I failed.  And come on – how could I not check it out?  It’s a pretty good little store with crazy-low prices, made even lower by the girl who rang me up.  According to the signs, I should have been paying between $1 and $2 for each of the two books I was buying, but she said she’s allowed to do her own pricing and she was WAY too excited about that.  She was clearly still in high school, very young, and she’s working there for free, and then she only charged me $1.08.  For both books.  She said it was accurate, so I didn’t complain.  And then she said I had to go this bakery just down the street ’cause at the end of the day, they sell cookies and muffins and things at a major discount.  She didn’t have to tell me twice.  They had a poppy seed muffin, which is good enough for me, but it was filled with custard, and that makes it heavenly.    So I got one (and a cookie) for the jaw-droppingly low price of 93 cents.  How do these places stay in business?  Does it cost that little to live here?  My breakfast (two eggs over easy on toast) was only $3.03.  I think I may have overstated when I said I supported local businesses today.

Dinner was really good.  Better than last night.  I went to Va Bene.  My waiter was great, and my table had the BEST view.  I was right at the lakeside edge of their back deck.  Still inside, but with an uninterrupted view of Lake Superior and all the sailboats.  Really nice.  If you ever find yourself in Duluth, I can recommend that restaurant.  The forecast says it’s supposed to be sunny tomorrow (it said that about today, too, but I’m still hopeful), so tomorrow evening I may venture farther afield (further afield?  They both look really weird to me right now.).

The early bedtime followed by early exercise worked for me last night and today, so that’s my plan for tonight and tomorrow, too.  See ya!

About halfway through my workout, the thunder and lightning started, and the rain switched from steady to POURING.  Like the clouds were hurling all that rain down as hard as they could.  I was soaked after my dash back to the room.  Rain like that doesn’t usually stick around for long, but it was still raining as hard or harder when I splashed through the parking lot to my car to get to work.  I have to park about a block away from the building (at work, not at the hotel), so I stopped at my friendly neighborhood Kroger and bought a tiny little red umbrella.  You know what that means.  By the time I parked in the lot downtown, the rain had slowed to a sprinkle and I hardly needed the umbrella.  If I hadn’t bought it, though, it would have been pouring still. 

My point, if I had one, is that despite the soaking wet hem of my pants, and despite knowing that I don’t get to go home until NEXT Friday, I feel a little better because I RAN this morning.  (“SO much better” from the first paragraph has already been downgraded.)  Also, I get to see Mom, Dad, and Gaby tonight.  They’re stopping here to see me on their way back to KY.  AND (see? lots of good things today) my first couple of hours at work this morning have already been a vast improvement over the rest of this week ’cause I’m sitting down and I’ve only had to talk to two people.  Sitting down is crucial. 

Make that five people.  Still better than the rest of the week, and I have a built-in, supervisor-approved excuse so I don’t have to stay here all day.  Yay!

My class got out a little earlier than expected, so I headed out of the windowless training room on the 9th floor (windowless, yes, but NOT in a basement – big improvement) hoping to go for a run.  I got off the elevator to cloudy skies, but I was still hopeful.  Cloudy just means it’ll be cooler without the sun beating down on me.   Then I got outside.  Raining.  Hard.  Annoyed.  (Me, not the rain, although who knows?)  Then I had a brilliant idea.  I’m in Atlanta, it’s only 4pm, it’s raining, and I’m mere blocks away from a shrine to the only soft drink worthy of the name.  So I went – by myself – and joined a tour group and spent a very enjoyable couple of hours looking at all the Coke stuff, watching the videos, watching a ton of Coke commercials, and tasting many (not nearly all) of the really disgusting Coke products they manage to sell around the world.  On my way out (funneled, of course, through the gift shop, where I showed admirable restraint and did NOT buy myself a t-shirt), they handed me a Coke. 

In sadder news, Roxy had a seizure this morning.  John said it was a cluster seizure, and she was in the middle of it when he came back in from his morning run.  Riley had done his holding her down thing, there was hair everywhere, and he’d slobbered all over her neck.  (No blood.)  John talked to our vet this afternoon, and she apparently jumped to the conclusion that the new medicine isn’t working and that Roxy needs an MRI (costs at least $1000 according to her (the vet, not Roxy)).  I’m not sure why she (the vet) went there so quickly, though.  Roxy’s only been on the new meds for a month and off the old meds for only three weeks, and in that time she’s had basically two episodes.  That sounds pretty promising to me.  So we’re going to ignore the vet for the time being.  (That’s a strange phrase.  Time being.  I’m sure I’ve said it before, but I don’t think I’ve ever written it down.  Looks too weird.)

It got late before I realized it, and I haven’t eaten dinner yet, so I’m out of here.

Updated to add Roxy’s second set of seizures for the day.  Three this time.  John may be leaving her with the vet for observation tomorrow, since he can’t stay home with her.

All of a sudden, I’m nervous about tomorrow.  I don’t know why; tomorrow shouldn’t be any different than the last two Mondays.  I have everything I need, and in fact, most of it is already in the car, so I’m not even in danger of leaving anything crucial at home.  I don’t like this sense of general anxiety.  Makes me nervous.  ( )  I might try some sort of meditation to get to sleep.