Twenty things I did today, in no particular order:
- Fed my dogs, Oliver and Henry. This guy down the street saw me out with them the other day and offered me half a bag of dog food he said was leftover. Leftover. Yikes. This reminded me of Hemingway’s six-word story: For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn.
- Zipped up my black boots.
- Sucked on a lemon drop, leftover from a Secret Santa gift bag.
- Took a call at work from a lady who had the wrong number. She was trying to reach her daughter, and kept asking what she should do to find her. “What number should I call?” she said. And I said, “Well, what number were you trying to call?” And she read me off a phone number, different in every way from ours. So I said, “Maybe call that number.” This confused her, and she said “Which number?” And I said, “The 2-5-3 one you just read me.” This conversation went on for some time.
- Pinched my thumb in an umbrella.
- Curled those couple strands of hair around my face which refuse to follow the curl pattern of the others.
- Checked on some flowers I have pressed inside a thick square book about Holga photography.
- Wrote an email to a friend.
- Wrote a bunch of emails to non-friends.
- Ate a salad with tofu while listening to All the President’s Men on my phone. The narrator does one hell of a Nixon voice.
- Found a child hiding under my desk and pretended I couldn’t see her.
- Unloaded the dishwasher. Nearly—nearly—dropped a glass. Slippery fucker.
- Watered the ferns. I’ve become a crazy plant lady during the pandemic, and have collected, at last count, a zillion houseplants. At present they’re clustered near the windows in winter survival mode.
- Added a quote to my commonplace book: “I think the universe is pure geometry—basically, a beautiful shape twisting around and dancing over space-time.” – Antony Garrett Lisi
- Drank three cups of instant coffee, with soy milk and six drops of stevia.
- Dropped an f-bomb. (See 5.)
- Sang “Rocket Man” in the car and then again in the kitchen.
- Tied loops in the straps of my mask to make it fit better. I can’t get into all this color-coordination with the masks, and always wear the blue paper ones to work. This new box must have been made for giants.
- Kissed my husband, who brought me a double bouquet of white mums.
- Read some pages from a book of poetry by Marie Howe. Lovely, lovely…
What did you do today?
