This morning we lolled in bed until 8:45 am. Don?t know how that fits into your early to late scale but for me that is most decadent.

Another reason to hate me is that I am a morning person.

(Of course, if I am in a manic creative phase I am also a burning-the-candle-past-midnight person which creates a round the clock kind of AWAKENESS, but you know, that?s not so pretty so let?s go back to talking about the morning).

This morning.

You see, as I sail further and further from the shore of corporate life, I mark things in my new life in a sort of comparison to the old. For instance, every Wednesday of the six years prior to August, I ran a big meeting in ye olde board room that began at 9 am sharp.

Sharp, as in you will be publicly shamed with a stinging, caustic comment from me if you enter the room after the meeting has begun. Needless to say, attendance was great and most, ummm, punctual.

Although there was lots of laughter and some (usually on me) practical jokes, the humor was inescapably that of soldiers in a muddy trench being assaulted with mustard gas. It was grueling for them and grueling for me.

So, today, after I had taken the dogs outside for their morning constitutional, come back inside, brought my mug of French-pressed coffee over to the seat by the window, after I had flipped open my morning pages to begin a fresh round of scribbles, I stopped and did one of those comparison things I do on occasion?and man, this gray, misty morning never sparkled like so many diamonds.

Not that I have ever had any interest in diamonds because I don?t. I?m not sure but I think there are vast quantities of them that the deBeers of the world keep in vats somewhere in order to keep the market value high. Plus, I hate the idea of the miners digging for them under miserable conditions. Plus, you have only to open your eyes on a walk and see the sparkle in bits of mica in stones, sunlight on the lake, or the look in my dogs' eyes when they come running in full-on joy.

In this new life, Mondays and Tuesdays are really the hard-hitting days.

For example, the day before yesterday I had a staff meeting at 10 am followed by a meeting with the nazi woman who runs the art center?s expansive auditorium, followed by an hour nooking around the college town caf? (ooh flirty boys!) and second-hand store (ooh fabulous cast-offs from rich college girls!) followed by a meeting with the director of a state-wide kids at risk program (which was energizing and filled with talk of exciting projects) followed by a meeting with an artist and then traveling with this artist out to one of the elementary schools (where we are hosting a mural program) to meet with the principal et al. (where we threw on dark robes, put wild roots in our hair and chanted around a bonfire?ha ha not really, just checking to see if you were still with me).

But, that?s not a typical day because I have yet to have two days that in any way resembled each other?which I love.

Almost as much as I love having Henry here at my feet curled up like a bunny.

(ED NOTE: both pictures posted yesterday and the one of the dogs running above were taken by T.)

got 2 cents?