I accidentally signed up for five extra shifts this week. I mean, I signed up for each one on purpose, but in each case I short-sightedly peered at the day itself on the calendar and thought, “Yes, I could do that.” And I am not even pretending that I am as work-busy as people who work this many hours (or TWICE this many hours) EVERY week, but it is a startling change to my routine and the days are just flying by and I am not getting much else done and I am feeling fretful and frazzled.

Well! The kids are not up yet, and I have coffee, and I am not not not going to reach into the open bag of peanut M&Ms on my desk, and let’s see what there is to say.

I am reading a book that is kind of disturbing and kind of upsetting but also pulllls me back to it, and that is one of the best things in a book. A lot is going to depend on the ending, but right now it is a book success. This comes on the heels of two book failures in a row. First I tried this one (I am linking, but I don’t want to lure the author here to read something negative), and I kept feeling as if I OUGHT to like it, and I DID kind of like it, and yet I didn’t want to go back to it, and eventually I was like, “I do not have to keep reading this: I can just SAMPLE it, as I did, and then send it back to the library.” Then I tried this one, and after awhile I was thinking, “Haven’t we learned our lesson by now, that we NEVER end up happy after reading books about young boys coming of age via inappropriate relationships with older women and acts of dangerous stupidity with other boys?” “We” in this case being the royal we. Many others certainly love this sort of book, considering how many there are.

I was so glad for all the advice on the post about our difficult new cat. I feel as if we are making progress with her, but on the other hand yesterday there were like three or four big snarling spitting rolling attacks, so maybe I am imagining it. But there was ALSO a time when one of the boy cats walked past her and she was alert but did not attack, and he did not provoke her predator instincts by hissing and darting away. And we’re shutting her in another room while we feed the boys, and they are getting used to this, so that when I close a door and then call them, sometimes they don’t have to be dragged to the food but instead trot right up.

I LOVED the suggestions on the best chocolate to buy from a store! I am planning a gradual tour-of-eating through ALL of them. What I chose for the recipient in question was a bag of Lindt raspberry truffles (I remembered AFTER posting that I DID know she liked raspberry flavoring in general) and a three-pack of Ferrero Rocher hazelnut chocolates (one of my own favorites, which I’d mentioned to her recently and she’d never tried).

Coffee is gone, kids are getting up, more another time!