I’m on the couch, 2:54PM, watching the Colts/Jets game in a quiet house. M and the boys are at the YMCA with friends. The dogs are outside. My laundry is folded and in a basket on the floor.

So this morning I woke at five-thirty (I love my new analog clock that glows blue when you push a button on the top) and played facebook scrabble in bed until about six. I shouldn’t play scrabble before coffee, however, as I set up an opponent with “Quid” and she responded by adding an S to make “Squid”. Fuck! Oh well. Once downstairs the boys and I watched the Super Hero Squad before I showered, ate breakfast, and started cleaning. I listened to the “late at night” mix CD and finished the first floor within an hour. After vacuuming upstairs and getting the rooms together I threw on jeans and rain gear for a walk with Mack and Pete. The temps, by the way, are above forty and rain has pelted the town for the last twelve hours. Downtown was deserted and grey water waves with white crests battered the beach and harbor. We walked up the hill and checked out the overlook but the fog was too thick to see even the condo building just below. I love the intense, blustery rain. Sometimes, of course, Wisconsin can seem so ordinary. But when you’re standing on a bluff looking out over the lake in the pouring rain, well, Wisconsin is as exotic as you can imagine. You could drop a blindfolded Chicagoan here, let them take a look, and they’d probably think they were in Scotland.

Later M and I watched most of Julie and Julia. Good movie, so far, really. Meryl Streep is amazing. And then M and the boys went to the Y.

I wonder how happy I’ve been lately. I wonder why I keep grinding my teeth and can’t sleep. I wonder if I should just give up and take sleeping pills.

Class tomorrow, both teaching and studenting. Have a great night.