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I've been procrastinating doing stuff around the house that I really need to do... like wash the dirty panes in the french door illustrated so clearly to be not clear in this photo. I've done so much laundry this week that's yet to be put away. I've eaten everything quick and easy out of my fridge. I've been dodging. I have spiraled into two modes of operation during the week. I work and I kill time between work. These are basically the go-betweens that tie my weekends to each other where I can smile. I got my hair cut yesterday at lunch. It went quickly as my current style of coiffure is less than low maintenance, so I stopped at the salon next door and got a deluxe spa pedicure. It was the best part of my workday. I can assure you. Client conflict resolution is low on my Fun Stuff To-Do list. I got a huge kick out of reading about Alex the African Grey via Lisa's link. African Grey's have been my favorite ever since my grade school friend's Grey would tell me to "Eat a burrito!" every time I came over to visit. I watched the most touching video I've seen in a long, long time yesterday. Memories of Sean's father, my own childhood reflected in those scenes, how time slips away from us and loved ones are sometimes lost, my own paternal emotions... whatever it was, it moved me. The closest thing I had to something like this was a tape my mother had of me around 2 years old at my grandmother's house. The milk back then was delivered to the front step in glass bottles held in plastic milk cartons. Most kids now don't even realize milk ever was in anything else but recycled plastic jugs, much less *gasp* a mammal. In the tape, I was saying clearly to my mother, "Hey Mr. Milkman... keep those bottles quiet." It kills me that I don't know what happened to that tape. I haven't seen it in almost 20 years. It certainly gives you appreciation for parents that turn into documentarian freaks at conception. Wisdom in forethought.

"maggie and milly and molly and may" - e.e. cummings
maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)
and maggie discovered a shell that sang so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and milly befriended a stranded star whose rays five languid fingers were; and molly was chased by a horrible thing which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and may came home with a smooth round stone as small as a world and as large as alone. For whatever we lose (like a you or a me) it's always ourselves we find in the sea