Last night I didn't fall asleep until...[drum roll]...Seven AM! That was partly because I was reading the new Dave Barry book, but mostly because my amazing high-power brain would not boot down. G'night moon!

On the way BACK from my little interlude with Dave, right before I exited at Centreville, I was passed by three unmarked cop cars booking down 66 in the HOV lane. Of course we now know that they were going to the next exit over from me, at Manassas, where another poor person has been hit with "one shot right in the head", at the second gas station down the road from mine. My sister has declared her poignant desire to "rip [the sniper's] balls out with tweezers." Isn't it interesting, and indicative, that we always assume it's a "he"? What makes this evening all the more pleasant is that I came home from class to find a huge white van parked next to my house, where I have never seen a huge white van before. I'm getting out the tweezers...

Today I met Dave Barry. Yes, I am NOT making this up! (I was worried I'd faint right there next to the podium.) He even signed my/his/Wendy's book with my lucky purple glitter pen. That pen is PRETTY DANG lucky now. I said "I think I've read almost all of your books" and he said "I think I wrote amost all of them." We exchanged some other remarks, mine insipid and his funny. It was all rather blurry. Should have cleaned my contacts beforehand. I am mainly pleased with myself for not fainting. Thanks to Wendygirl for the use of her binoculars.

Bennie is eating well.

This morning I discovered that there IS uncharted wilderness in Centreville after all! Well, a creek and a rope swing, in any case. I walked over fallen trees and startled 4 deer in a field, their little white tails flying.

In graphic design class today I worked surreptitiously (spell check! Spell check!) on my prospectus for 18th Century British Lit. Not because i dislike design class (the very opposite!), but because I have been having all sorts of concentration issues lately.

Bennie, my foster cat, threw up a LOT last night (bad kidneys). When he feels himself getting sick, he tries to run to his litter box. It's such a sweet gesture, even though I don't really mind cleaning up the white carpet after him (don't tell my mom-slash-landlord...). I am worried about him. I watched my other cat die of kidney disease a few months ago - I thought it would be a good idea for me to take on another kidney cat, as a tribute to Buster in a way, but I was WRONG - it's a bit much for me to handle emotionally. Bennie is so sweet and loving and I can't stand to see him waste away. I give him Pepsid and sub-q fluids but he's not gaining any weight.

........Going for a walk. Even though I have walked all the trails in Centreville about eight zillion trillion times. (Remember when we were little and if we needed to indicate a large amount of something, we'd say, for instance, "I could eat a zillion billion trillion Reeses Peanut Butter Cups"?)

I have also walked every single trail in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

This is my blog space so I can insert as many "for what it's worth" details AS I WANT! YEAH!