Blind Moon, originally uploaded by arahsae.

This photo is from a 13 second exposure in my back yard last night. Texas skies agree with me.

I have a peculiar brand of laziness. I've summed it up here before -- the concept that if one does nothing, one cannot make a mistake. As a person who seeks perfection in all things, mistakes are appalling and to be grieved over. (This is also unacceptable, as using time inefficiently is a veritable sin.)

Yes, this system is flawed, for in refusing to decide or choose, one is often stuck with whatever is left over (default) or is simply left out. Or perhaps putting off a decision or act means someone else has to do it, therefore responsibitiy is deferred.

Not really, but I can fool myself.

It all comes down to seconds. The act of responding to an email about a Craigslist job posting -- the work of a second -- then calling to set up an interview -- the decision of a second to just push the buttons on the phone -- and then not pushing the scheduled interview to Monday as I originally wanted. Get it scheduled, get it done, stop putting it off. I should take Nike to heart.

All this is a roundabout way of congratulaing myself for the work of a (really, ten) minute(s) to see what sort of vision service discounts my insurance provides, finding a local associate, and calling for an appointment. (I hate calling. No problem answering the phone, but calling...ugh.) I'm in on Thursday. Mine eyes, unexamined for these five or six years and suffering under inadequate and protein-deposited contact lenses, will finally see the glory of clear vision.

Once I have the finances, I want to get glasses. I miss glasses.

About the job: yesterday was my first day and it was short; only four hours. I can't say much about it because there are only a few of them in the area. There are some basic ways to vaguely describe it, but they are the same words one could use to describe a brothel. Let me try:

People come in happy and wanting to have fun.
There is a creative element.
Customers pay by the session and to work with a specific piece.
Special requests are honored if at all possible; the management is flexible.

See? Sounds like a house of ill repute!

It is good for me right now and pays more than my Olde Bama Job. That's all I can say here.

I'm starting to collect suggestions for my 2007 Required Reading List. Ideas? My loose theme is "Classic-Must-Read Genre Fiction."

IMG_0613, originally uploaded by arahsae.

You know, I cannot remember a year when so many sad things happened to myself and people I know and love. So many deaths; young, old and in-between. It makes one a little paranoid.

2006, though I am glad you got me out of Alabama, I have to say I'll be glad to see the end of you and hope for better times in 2007.

Door (w/a Mission), originally uploaded by arahsae.

Wouldn't it be fun to blow up a photo of a door and paper a wall with it?
I've nothing of merit to write tonight. The remnants of Hurricane Lane are upon us; flood warnings are in effect. The thunder keeps setting the neighbors' car alarm off. It's a total dance party with all the strobing lightning.

I did have a great time shopping the other day. More soonish.

Off and on, for the past several days, and to my extreme delight, it has poured and sprinkled. Hooray rain!

Tuesday was recycling day, so out I marched with the official green tote full of glass and metal and plastic and from the garage I dragged a pile of broken down cardboard moving boxes. There's a stack four feet high awaiting disposal, but that's not really fair to the recycling guys, so I only set out as much as I can personally transport to the curb in two goes. It felt like rain, but I haven't been here long enough to know when the truck usually comes, so I decided to leave the cardboard out in the hopes the truck would beat the rain.

The truck did not beat the rain. Once I realized the sound I heard was buckets of water pelting down on the roof and my cardboard boxes, I ran to the garage, opened the door and saw drippy wet cardboard, tidily stacked next to the recycling bin.

A good thirty seconds went by as I debated making a run for it. I like water, right? But could I get the whole soggy pile in one run? Maybe not. I ran upstairs, ran into my bathroom, turned around and ran into the closet (still getting the hang of things) and yanked my Columbia jacket off the hanger.

I zippered myself up tight enough for a monsoon and dragged the flattened boxes to the dry safety of the garage and checked the damage -- not completely soaked, will easily dry out for the next round of recycling.

Of course, an hour later the sun came out, but I decided not to tempt fate. The boxes are still here.

Today I took my (now dry) jacket back upstairs but stopped before hanging it up because I felt something in the pocket. There were a few scraps of paper, a grocery club card and my mom's library card, complete with signature. I don't remember how it got in my pocket. I might have borrowed it back in December when I was in Oregon for Christmas. That would mean she was without her card for three months! -- it was in Alabama with me. But I can't remember if instead I took it out of her purse after she died; that time was so abnormal and blurry. It seems a silly thing to take, but the library and bookstores and reading were all things my mom and I both did. Together.

So I'm deciding that I took it at Christmas, because that means she went crazy for three months trying to find her damn card and using her driver's license to check books out instead. I like that story better.

I'm saying all this because tomorrow is my mom's birthday. She would have been 64. Susie and I talked today, and we decided -- despite the miles between us -- we are both taking ourselves out to lunch and going shopping. That's what mom loved to do with us. It sounds so cliche, but it was always fun and good to get some one-on-one time. She'd come visit me in Portland and we'd drive down to Hawthorne and eat at the Bread and Ink Cafe and hit Imelda's for shoes and Powell's for books and whatever else piqued our interest. Talking all the time.

That's what I'm doing tomorrow, except for the talking. It will be quiet.

Mom and Sarah, originally uploaded by arahsae.

Dana took this the week my mom was in Boston.

Sleeves!, originally uploaded by arahsae.

Look what I'm wearing!

Today = Awesome.

It rained. All day. It was cool and cloudy and wet and I was so excited the entire day. The windows in my room are OPEN and the a/c is OFF.

We'll be back up to 97,000 degrees tomorrow, but I really needed the rain. As did the farmers.