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How did I get so overbooked? I'm not exactly a social butterfly. I'm not even a modestly diffident moth, if you know what I mean. (And how could you, since I don't?) Yet (yet?) lately I seem to have something to do all the time, something more important than sitting in the recliner watching lame summer TV.
Last night I was only too happy to have a chance to baby sit. It was a lot of fun, and quite entertaining. D.J. never runs out of ideas, or words to express them. I'm in awe of how fast his mind can switch tracks. One minute he's a uniraptor, but before you can fully grasp the impact of it, he's become a motorcycle cop. It's a good thing he doesn't expect anyone to keep up with him. As long as he thinks you're listening, he's perfectly happy.
As for Dakota, I'm amazed and delighted that he invites me into his world a little more every time I see him. We have our own special games that we play, usually involving repetitive sounds or movements. Once I figure out what I'm supposed to say or do, we can communicate on that level for a long time - until he gets bored and moves on, anyway. I'll say, "1-2-3 go!" and wait to see what he does. (Whatever it is, it usually earns him a round of applause, which he appreciates.)
So last night was a good outing, but in the hours leading up to leaving the house, I sweated through three T-shirts and never found time to eat. My eating patterns are suffering badly these days. I had a bowl of Raisin Bran Crunch yesterday morning and a bagel (Lender's plain, with Philly) at teatime, but nothing after that until about 2:00 pm this afternoon, when I ate the leftover Cajun chicken with red beans and rice that I'd planned to have last night.
And that, of course, left me without much of an appetite before I left for the play at 7:00 pm. Yes, that's right, another outing, and on a school night at that. Mom and I went to the junior college to see SRT's production of "Our Town" tonight. I think I must have been in high school the last time I saw it performed live on stage. That was a few years ago.
What is there to say about "Our Town" anyway? It's an existential American slice of unsentimental nostalgia. It's life, love and death reduced to the naked essence. It's the perfect play that plumbs the depths by exposing the surface. It's timeless while being wholly rooted in its own era. It's so stark and simple that it seems profound and enigmatic. It's a whole world portrayed with chairs on a bare stage.
And Friday night we're seeing "Into the Woods," which I've never seen but fully expect to be an entirely different experience. I can't believe I signed up for this much action, all in one week. And it just happens to be deadline week for quarterly tax payments. You know how I love my deadlines, because they force me to be as focused as I probably should be all the time. I think I'll make these deadlines, but no thanks to the flurry of interruptions I had today. | 
