On Today Being a Good Day

Thursdays I don't work. In fact, I barely work ever. Period. And I won't work at all come July 22nd, which is officially my last day at the bookstore. That is, I won't work until I find myself plopped down two weeks later in front of a classroom full of bushy-tailed, bright-eyed 18 year-olds eager to write essays about their high school travails and first loves (is it wrong I imagine Comp I happening like this? Is it wrong? I never took Comp I. I don't know. I fear I may be ripening toward a little something called a Rude Awakening).

So today I didn't work. And Dominic didn't work much. And that's how I found myself being whisked away to Lisa's Radial Cafe for a late breakfast and then a stop-in at Sweet Magnolia's bakery afterward for a key lime bar, which is so good you'd have to taste it for yourselves because adjectives, my friends, simply will not do this time. After the key lime bar was delivered safely to our refrigerator at home, we were off to a local tea shop. Then we went next door to World Market and bought a bunch of discounted baskets for organizational purposes (because if there's one thing Dominic and I lack it's organizational skill, so, seriously, we needed those baskets) and then we came home and organized, and I cleaned the house a bit. Afterward, I didn't fail to note (and I do this--sadly--every time I clean house) how much better I like our house when it's clean and free of clutter. We have a beautiful house! So it turns out.

There was also a challenging run Dominic and I took to the park, and reading Updike on the front porch, and delivering a lost toy back to neighbor kids, and playing with our kitties, and tiger lilies in a vase on our dining room table, and using new exciting citrus-y smelling bath products. Now Dominic is cooking chicken adobo and rice in the kitchen. Yay! See how good today is? See? I told you.

Two more things of note:

1. I've been invited to join a book club. After I finished celebrating such a good turn of luck by pumping my fist in the air like an Olympic gold medalist, I compiled a list of "nominations." Another way to describe the inception of this list would be to say I totally "dorked out." Here's the list. If you've read any of these books tell me whether you liked them.

The Remains of the Day --Iazuo Ishiguro
Love in the Time of Cholera --Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Prep and The Man of My Dreams --Curtis Sittenfeld
The Human Stain and The Plot Against America --Philip Roth
The Bonfire of the Vanities --Tom Wolfe
The Blind Assassin --Margaret Atwood
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay --Michael Chabon
The Shipping News --Annie Prouxl
The Devil Wears Prada --Lauren Weisburger
Lolita --Vladimir Nabokov
The Time Traveler's Wife --Audrey Niffenegger
Bridget Jone's Diary --Helen Fielding
The Fountains of Neptune --Rikki Ducornet
Written on the Body and Sexing the Cherry --Jeanette Winterson

2. We've finally named Little Cat. As of today he will be referred to as Thomas Pynchon. Because, much like Thomas Pynchon, he is crazy as hell.

Garbage Day

Kate: Yeah, sprinklers around here make running on the sidewalks like an optical course. Especially on garbage days. Man, you're leaping around all the garbage cans, lids, and the recycling bins... An optical course, I tell you!

Dominic: You mean obstacle course?

Kate: Uh, yeah. But it's also an optical course because I use my optical resources, you see?

Dominic: You mean your eyes?

Kate: Exactly!

A lot about stuff you probably have no interest in

Okay, so basically a lot has happened since last we spoke. But it's been like that quite frequently around here anyway, right? Last Saturday, we had our big blow-out promotion party for Dominic and friends, and my siblings flew in from Alabama for a week-long visit. It was a busy day. I wish I could tell you all about that party because--wow--lots of funny, funny stuff happened (Dominic, I'm looking at you), but I want everyone to still like me afterward, so, sorry, you get nothing. Except I will say we met most of our neighbors, and they're all incredibly nice, and they still spoke to us the next morning, so there's that.

Carrie and Craig--the aforementioned siblings--were down with hanging out in Omaha and we delighted them with such exciting forays as to The Zoo! and to The Imax Theater! and to The Ice cream in the Old Market! When we weren't at the zoo or the Imax theater or eating ice cream my brother and sister were either a.) watching the World Cup or b.) sleeping like sleeping champs. There wasn't a lot of middle ground, so unfortunately at times I felt like there wasn't any difference between them being here and being in Alabama because I hardly ever saw them.

Alas, Saturday they had to sever themselves from all that zoo-ing and Imax theater-ing and ice cream-eating and leave us. They will be sorely missed, especially since they only emerged into the daylight maybe twice the whole week so I never really saw them anyway.

Summer will probably be in a denouement from here on out. Dominic had taken leave from work to entertain Carrie and Craig and I for the week, but now that he's back he'll start flying soon. The runway at Offutt is closed so he going to be bussed to Lincoln, which ladles many, many hours onto his daily schedule. I predict I will see him approximately three and a half hours during the next three months.

But I'll be busy, quitting my bookstore job and preparing for my teaching job. Trying to get this house clean again after Hurricane Carrie and Tropical Storm Craig came whirling through. Squirting Little Cat with the spray bottle because he is so, so bad. Last night he peed on our down comforter.

Introducing Booger

As part deux of my birthday gift, Dominic and I adopted a kitten! We thought we were going to adopt another full-grown cat, but there happened to be an abnormal influx of kittens at the shelter we went to, so kitten it was.

Booger's not really his name. We haven't settled on one yet. I wanted to name him Wee Thomas, but Dominic said no one would get it, and unless you're Brooke, and perhaps Dale, you don't get it, do you? But if you did get it, oh it would be the funniest cat name in the history of cat names to you, and you would laugh and laugh and laugh and say, "WEE THOMAS!" with an Irish accent. Second to my desire to name him Wee Thomas is my desire to name him after some clever literary reference, an author or a character. My favorites are Billy Faulkner and Major Major Major, but somehow those don't seem to be sticking either. Dominic likes Chief Curly Whiskers, but that will probably be his rank and call sign, just like Mia's rank and call sign are Ensign Fuzzybritches. (And oh, we are crazy cat people.)

Speaking of Mia, she's not really having this whole multi-cat household, but I suppose we're proud enough of her because, though she will spit and hiss at the kitten and even box him on his ears if he gets too close, she's mostly cool with having him hang around and hasn't tried to eat him as a tasty snack even once...as long as he doesn't try to play with her or anything crazy like that.