one small corner of the universe

First of all, you should know that I started writing this post exactly two days and 40 minutes ago. I got as far as the title, and then I had to save it as a draft and put it aside. I know you might be thinking, “Well, you ARE at work, after all, and you SHOULD be working. You can blog from home.” To you I say, “I am much more clever at work,” and, “Seriously, if you saw the state of my house right now you’d know I have way bigger problems than not blogging. Like cleanliness. Or lack thereof*.” But I digress.

I started writing this post, intended to be an update of the past two weeks since I haven’t really written anything since the day I wanted to quit my job, but now, two days later, I cannot remember what minutiae I was going to share with you. As it stands, new minutiae has filled my head, so I will share it with you now:

• It was 43 degrees outside when I left for work this morning. I LOVE it. Love the way cold air feels when I take a deep breath. Love seeing mist in the air when I exhale. Love the old photo look of early fall mornings, sort of grainy and drained of color as the leaves move from green to various shades of red, gold and orange. Love the ridiculously blue shade of an October sky. Love having an excuse to stop at St@rbucks and get an extra hot latte. Love the sudden infusion of pumpkin spice at every bakery and coffee shop in town. I will tell you come December all the things I love about approaching winter, about how it is my favorite season with its twinkle lights and peppermint and the potential of snow. Don’t believe me. In fact, you shouldn’t believe me now when I tell you that autumn is my favorite season. The truth is, my favorite season is the one slowly making its way into being at the moment, the one whose unique characteristics I have not encountered since this time last year. I say I don’t like change, but where the seasons are concerned I count on it.

• I am starting to freak out about my grad classes. More specifically, I’m freaking out about the work to be done for them. Remember those insane reference questions? We get a new set next week. And I’m supposed to be working on my 25-30 page annotated bibliography, also for reference, but I also have a term paper and a take-home essay exam to do for the collection management class. Normally I scoff at such freaking out; normally I know it will all get finished, I will manage to do it all and do it all right, even if it’s at the last minute. Yeah, and normally I am not 29 weeks pregnant. Come to think of it, maybe I’m not freaking out about the right things.

• I think Suzanna the Dog is going deaf. That, or she’s gotten really good at selective hearing. Case in point: Last weekend I was at a friend’s house in the mountains. I left Suzanna in the house and went into town for dinner, and upon returning, saw Suzanna lying on the sofa in front of the front window watching the TV I’d forgotten to turn off. I knocked on the window. And knocked. And knocked some more. She didn’t even bat an eye or flick an ear. In fact, she didn’t move at all until I opened the door, so either the sound of the door opening was loud enough to get her attention, or she saw it and registered a change in her situation. On Wednesday night she slept through a thunderstorm. And when I take her out at night without the leash and she wanders too far ahead of me, calling her is futile–it’s like I’m not making a sound. But then she still cocks her head and perks up when I say the words “walk,” “ride,” or “car.” Any theories?

See, minutiae. Maybe I’m not all that clever at work after all. Heh.

*Okay, my house is not really unclean, but good housekeeping is not really high on my priority list these days. I am way more concerned about food and the placement of pillows when I’m trying to go to sleep. Really, those two things take up most of my spare time at home. Seriously.