1) Up late (for me) at 7 AM. I am still in this interim period of vacation. With a couple out-of-town weekends still to come, staying at home during the week still feels like time off and not what it really is, my New Life. I expect the full horror of it will become apparent on Monday, September 9.
2) The morning’s devotional included a reading from an orange-and-gold etiquette book I found at ye Bryttle Bykke Shoppe a year or so ago, A Book of Courtesy: The Art of Living with Yourself and Others by Sister Mary Mercedes, O.P., lovingly updated for their 50th reunion by the Dominican Convent Upper School Class of 1950. The flap of the dust jacket had been left on the first page of a chapter on Friendships. “You choose your pleasures, your books, and your occupations, but you do not choose your friends; you only discover them.” And I have made so many wonderful discoveries in my life, and I want to be worthy of them.
3) As I am fond of quoting Zippy the Pinhead, “Frivolity is a stern taskmaster,” which means today needs to be focused on packing for the Cape!