Numbers: Just Warming Up...

Number of chairs in my apartment:
Ten. Plus a sofa and two stools.

Number of plants currently living in my apartment:
Thirteen. Surprisingly, my plants always do well. I'm not quite certain as to why or how this happens--in spite of my intermittent negligence--but they do. All except for one. You'll recall the orchid that I was bragging about just a few weeks ago? Yeah, ding-dong the orchid's dead.

Number of times I have sat down at the computer in the last week with the intention of blogging and then not done it:
More than ten.


Number of boyfriends I have had and where they live(d):
(these are of the three months or longer variety)
Nine. (I may be forgetting someone.)
Indianapolis
Maryland
Seattle
Michigan
Long Island
New Jersey
Indiana
Michigan again
Indiana again

Number of geniuses I encountered today:
Two.
While eating lunch this afternoon I overheard two guys talking animatedly and loudly about how, years ago, when they used to tend bar, they had created a system for rating women's "wracks". A woman would walk in, and one would call to the other, "can I get a TWO!" And so forth.

Number of times I have gone fishing:
Once.

Number of days (consecutively) that I was supposed to hang up my coat (as a kid)in order to get a puppy:
Ninety.
Each time I would forget--which was every other day--it would revert back to the beginning. The dad was no dummy.

Number of times I am hoping to blog in March:
Thirty-One.
Kind of like NaBloPoMo, well, it IS the same, as in lots of bloggers are participating. I suppose we could call it "NaBloPoMo lite". I could use a kick in the fanny as far as writing here is concerned. So anyway, there is a twist; this time it is to be a month of lists. I'm going to make some sort of list every single day--even if it comes down to itemizing the contents of my junk drawer.

Number of awards shows I have watched in the last two years:
Zero.

Number of TV shows I have watched in the last month:
Four. All of which were episodes of "Lost". It is the only show I follow, and I must admit that I have become kind of obsessed. I watch it online where there is only one thirty second ad every so often. This is SO awesome as commercials really make me want to gouge my eyes out. My coworker asked me yesterday if I was a "Jack", or a "Sawyer" woman. Definitely Jack.

I Think I've Lost My Mojo

This is a random collection of two or three separate posts I've begun and then not finished in the last weeks. I don't know what the problem is! I can't seem to find the energy to be remotely cohesive here lately. I think this is due to the fact that I went from being unemployed and, relatively speaking, unoccupied for most of the fall. Then, literally overnight, I was kicked out of my routine head first. The one in which Laura wakes up and goes to get coffee--probably reads the paper--takes the dog for a walk--window shops--picks the lint from her sweater--spends some hours writing cover letters, etc.--and OH LOOK! Is it nap time already?

Now it feels like work is all I have time for. And what little free time I do possess has to be parsed out and planned and managed down to the minute. I have to work to fit things in--like making phone dates to talk to friends. Part of the fall-out from this is that even something that I really WANT to do can become something like a chore.

Despite all this I must admit that I have been having some pretty good times of late. I appreciate work. I like all the things I am doing at this moment in time. And I am feeling challenged--in a personal and ultimately positive way. There is nothing like being forced to really look at one's life and self. It's definitely not always fun, exactly, but it has got to be done. I'm looking around me now and I see that I am part of a completely different landscape than six months ago--than I was even last week. Dear reader, I don't know about a lot of things, but I do know that I don't feel overwhelmed anymore. This is a most welcome development.

So anyway, as a result, my mind isn't the most organized place to be just now. That's just a fact Jack. Like I said, this post is all over the place...

Some words I like: i.e., how they sound, what they mean/are, what they look like...all of it.
Numb--It's kind of onomonopoetic! Did you know that there is no equivalent word for numb in Danish?
Rivulet--A lovely word in every way.
Entire--A good word and also a great song by The Spinanes.
Eschew
Hubris
Milquetoast--Don't you think this one should really be brought back into circulation?
Dwindle
Syntax
Plinth
Whet
Pith--I get the pith of your words.
Nestle (The verb not the company)
Pique
Scuttle
Wend
Globule
Brusque
Teeter
What are your favorite words?

So a little more on words. I have an unfortunate habit. When I hear a word being misused I invariably experience an immediate itch, NOT to CORRECT or belittle someone, but to MAKE IT RIGHT. I can't help myself. Like when a person mixes up cliche's--either using the wrong one in a wrong context, or takes parts of two different expressions, and duct tapes them together. Like "quick as a turtle" or "crazy like a dolphin". Or when someone uses a word that isn't the right one, but maybe SOUNDS similar.
(For example: when I was a kid I took to using "version" and "virgin" interchangeably. I remember well the horror of being (gently) corrected by my grade school teacher, Mr. Moran. He couldn't NOT tell me, right? That would have been kind of like allowing a friend to walk around unknowingly with a huge chunk of pesto stuck in her teeth.

Anyway, there is always a momentary struggle with this (almost unilaterally off-putting though I do maintain, well-intentioned,) impulse. 56.3% of the time I'm able to keep my trap shut and that is the end of it. (Earlier today someone at work said something like, "I will coo her" (he MEANT "woo")I said, "you mean 'woo', right?" COULDN'T HELP IT. It just slipped out. The irony is that I know my own grammar to be abysmal at times. And I'm certain that there are folks out there who most likely cringe at my mistakes in the same way that I do when I hear someone say escalation when they clearly meant excavation, or chipolte instead of chipotle.

Want To Know What's Awesome?

...Coming home from work to find a cupcake sitting on a shelf in my fridge. Yum, lemon with chocolate frosting. I had completely forgotten it was there.