Back Up To Heaven All Alone

Tuesday

I woke up an hour and a half bfore the alarm. My skin felt prickly. It was as if someone stood by my closet door, but no one did. Eventually, I got up, read my email and used the portable exercise cycle contraption Pete gave me during the December Gift-Giving Extravaganza. Then, at a time when I should have been jumping into the shower and running away! away! away! to work, I started breakfast. Just before 7:30, I called the office and left a message.

Tata: Good morning, Helen! I bet you've noticed I'm not there! I'll be along soon. I was doing fine until I started cooking breakfast, then I was cooking breakfast, then I was still cooking breakfast and, inexplicably, after that I was continuing to cook breakfast. There's enough for six linebackers in my kitchen! I'll be there in a little bit, and boy, will I be full!

Half an hour later, Helen was listening to her messages when I arrived. Breathless, she pointed at me and laughed until I walked away, away, away. My PC made noises like angry bees all day, which excited the unnamed university library's IT department.

One of my co-workers and I are on the same sleep schedule. I know when I'm up, she's up. When I'm sleeping, odds are good she's sawing a log. She mentioned she hadn't slept much either.

Tata: I was up before 5.
Lenore: Me, too.
Tata: You would think that would make me early for work but no! I was not! I got up and made breakfast for six people who weren't there. There's still toast in my toaster! So I was late.
Lenore: Don't you know I sat on the edge of my bed this morning and said, "Gerald, I'm going to turn over a new leaf and start eating breakfast," but I didn't! Next time you're cooking you call me.

We often dress alike without prompting.

Wednesday

It's finally light out before I start the car in the morning. Yesterday, as I walked to the parking lot, I was stunned by the pinks and golds of the sunlight just barely above the rooftops as overhead, woolly gray clouds gathered. The first drops of rain landed on my windshield as I put the car into drive and made my embarrassingly brief commute straight at a rainbow that appeared to be anchored just south of New Brunswick. During the walk from the lot to the library, I was dumbstruck by the size and clarity of the rainbow over the city. As I stood there staring the clouds burst open and I was soaked, but I laughed all the way to the front door. My PC sounded like it was straining to take off.

Today

I often say that when I leave the house I forget one thing I need, always at least one thing. This morning, I had to go back for my bookbag and the leftover toast. I'm having soup for lunch and this toast will taste wonderful, soaked in broth. I've been assured that when the dying part kicks the bucket my hard drive will not melt. That might be true of other people's PCs but not mine. We don't know what will happen.