Many years ago -- 6? 10? somewhere in between? -- I started writing a children's story. A very simple, short, picture-book type story. I wrote this story so long ago that I stored it on a floppy disk. Go ahead. Laugh a little. I'll wait.
Better now? Good. Anyway. All those years ago, I got the story pretty well outlined, and wrote a very rough first draft. And stored it on a floppy (insert more laughter here). And thought about it every once in a while, but never did anything more that that with it.
That floppy has very stealthily traveled 400+ miles with me, from Maine to Massachusetts to New York, through four apartments. Yesterday I got it in my head that I needed to find that floppy, but I didn't have time to look for it. I even dreamed about my story last night! I got the chance to look for the disk today, and amazingly enough, found it in the first box I looked through (I knew it was in one of two. there are just some things you never completely lose track of).
I put the disk into the drive on my ancient (in technology years. I wonder how many technology years are in a calender year? are they like dog years? anyone? Rick?) desktop system... and got an error message. I called my brother the computer whiz and he said that he'd only seen that particular message once or twice in all his years of computer geekdom. He told me the disk was toast. I said Noooooo! Do not want! Well, not exactly. But I asked if a really geeky geek could recover the file. He said maybe... but not likely... but he sent me a data recovery program just for the heck of it. I ran the software and got nothing but weirdness. And then decided to try it again just for the heck of it. AND IT WORKED! I got my little story back! It's pretty rough, but I think it can be something someday. And it's probably the only book I'll ever have time to get written. I'm up to two cookbook ideas now, but writing cookbooks requires many, many hours of recipe testing and cooking and reformulating and cookin and writing and rewriting. And unless someone revives that lovely medieval concept of the Patron of the Arts, and someone decided to give me many thousands of dollars so I can quite my job and cook and test and write and rewrite, it's going to take many, many years to get even one cookbook written. I think a 16-page picture is a better place to start.
Ruby Tuesday, Brewer, Maine, Monday afternoon. Kelli (that's me!) is being subjected to a decidedly un-vegan friendly menu. Brenda (my mother), Kyle (my nephew), and Kelli (that's me!) are being subjected to a heinous mix of hits of the 80s, 90s, and today...
Leona Lewis: I keep bleeding, keep, keep bleeding love. I keep bleeding, keep, keep bleeding love. I keep bleeding, keep, keep bleeding love. I keep bleeding, keep, keep bleeding love. I keep bleeding, keep, keep bleeding love. I keep bleeding, keep, keep bleeding love. I keep bleeding, keep, keep bleeding love. I keep bleeding, keep, keep bleeding love. I keep bleeding, keep, keep bleeding love. I keep bleeding, keep, keep bleeding love. I keep bleeding, keep, keep bleeding love.
The stomach thing I've had since Saturday is just about gone (can you say 101.5 temperature?), I'm spending tomorrow in Boston (and my round-trip bus ticket was only fifty cents!), and there's a Red Sox game on TV (that doesn't happen very often in NYC!).
I get lots of fr*ee stuff at work. LOTS. SO much that sometimes I can't find what I'm looking for when I'm ready to use it. Like the tube of toothpaste I brought home a couple months ago. I didn't want to open it until I finished my current tube. So I'm working pretty hard to squeeze the remains out of the current tube these days, and have been looking for the new tube for about a week. In the meantime, I bought a backup tube, but have resisted opening it in hopes of finding the fr*ee tube. I've looked in all my loot (that's what Kevin calls all my fr*ee stuff) stashes. Twice. No go. Still working to squeeze out the last bits of current toothpaste tube. Grr.
About an hour ago, Kevin and I were halfway through our yoga routine. I was fixed on a random point in the room, clearing my mind, softening my face and eyes, when suddenly, I HAD AN EPIPHANY. I found the toothpaste without even being able to see it!
Apparently my mind wasn't quite clear, but at least it was cluttered with something important.
