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.