It sounds cliché and a bit redundant to say “I’ve been so busy.” I think coming down off the high of the anniversary party was like suddenly being on vacation. Without kids. Except in my case,  there were kids. I’ve been randomly inspired to write over the last week or so, but life (and Veruca) keeps getting in the way. I’m always hit with the writing bug at the least convenient time, like when I’m driving, or have to leave for work. Some might argue this is my mind’s lame excuse to either avoid writing, or work, or both. At this point, it’s after 11 a.m. and I have little time for cohesive writing. So this is my offering.

Overheard at the restaurant:

As Bee removes wine glasses from a table of a 70-ish couple, he says “you can take this candle here too.”

Bee: Awe, you don’t want any more atmosphere?

70-ish gentleman: I have all the atmosphere I need, just looking at her. (His wife.)

Cue collective, and audible, sigh.

Random shit I’ve seen:

More people wearing pajamas in public. Seriously. Is this going to be a thing now?

A dude riding a lawn tractor, texting. (I wonder if there’s a law against this?)

A Confederate flag hanging from a laundry line on an Amish farm. No, I wasn’t drinking.

Bizarre and surreal shit:

Listened to someone sing Purple Rain and be forced to dance to it. Painful.

Bumped into Balloon Boy ‘s mother, who introduced me to her friend as the girl “he was so in love with” who “wouldn’t go out with him.” Speechless.

Came face-to-face with a woman who dared to enter my mother’s orbit after a very bad fallout 20+ years ago. Weird.

Random shit I’ve done:

Started marathoning Friends. I am not among that 52 million people who watched it when it was actually on. I read somewhere that there’s a good 85 hours of this show to cover, so if I’m missing for a while, you know where I am. Roughly, anyway.

Continued binge-watching Orange is the New Black. I still love this show, four seasons later. It’s gotten better over time, as the writers explore each character’s history. I still can’t decide which character is my favorite – it’s a fairly equal toss-up between Red, Crazy Eyes, Nichols, and Cindy. And Sophia. And Big Boo. And Sister Jane. And…

Posed for a picture with a Kiss tribute band. I think I’m going to add this goal to my bucket list… pictures with tribute bands/artists. (Since the real thing is too hard and I’m not ambitious enough.)

Went with the fam for crabs (ritual for any true Marylander); however, I chose crab cakes over picking though a pile of steamed crabs covered in brown dust (this is called Old Bay seasoning, for the uninitiated) and filled with green goo (which I’m told is organs of some sort but I think is just shit). What can I say? I was born and raised in Southeastern PA, where cheesesteaks ruled the universe.

Ran almost 4 and a half miles, just to show up my husband.

Started counseling. Yeah – there’s the big news. An hour could never be enough time to cover all that ails me, but we got to some things on the immediate plate that have me feeling confident about change, and I got some validation I seem to need desperately sometimes. More on that in a future post.