Thursday Morning, October 4

1) Yesterday turned out to be a wonderful, impromptu office excursion for us all to get our flu shots! “Whaaaaaaat?!” you ask. After having gotten the flu for a whole week after my last flu shot several years ago, I just said “I am too busy to be sick for a week!” Then I was down with the flu for two weeks last spring (as you may recall). And my doctor gave me a stern talking-to, so I knew I’d be getting a shot this autumn.

1a) Colleagues were very proactive about all this. One printed out flu shot forms for anyone going to complete early, to save time. Another kept calling out the number of minutes until the campus shuttle was supposed to get there. I think from our end of the floor about six people were on the shuttle, along with some others.

1b) The Great Big Flu Shot Clinic had been set up in ye Wylker Memorial, and a colleague timed us waiting in line for 28 minutes. It passed quite pleasantly with a whole clutch of people to talk and joke with!

1c) I could not roll up the sleeve of my dress shirt high enough for the nurse, so I had to undo everything from the top down so she could “go in from the top.”

2) Lots on the calendar today: the opening of mit.nano in the afternoon, and then a cocktail party on Newbury Street, and then dinner with a friend.

3) I’m trying not to let the fact that it’s already October get to me.

Sunday Morning, September 30

1) I’ve been up since 6 AM (quite naturally and by choice), drunk half a pot of coffee and written and published a column . . . and I’m ready for my nap.

1a) But I got that column published before 11 AM, so it’s a good day.

2) It’s worth noting that this year my birthday falls on National Chocolate Day.

3) This morning’s devotional included Matthew 6. A friend online once told me that the whole Book of Matthew was like the most poetic wisdom ever received. I thought that was such a great description.

3a) Whereas today’s C.S. Lewis made me say “Gurrrrlllll, you are overanalyzing this thing!”

Friday Afternoon, September 28

1) Quote of the Day: “An evil soul producing holy witnessis like a villain with a smiling cheek, a goodly apple rotten at the heart.” — William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

1a) This courtesy of my Shakespearean Insult a Day calendar, one of the best Christmas gifts I’ve ever received (and this from Oldest Nephew Who Must Not Be Tagged).

2) A gray day requires rainbow umbrellas.

3) Over the last few weeks I’ve tried to institute a weekly review period on Friday afternoon, to clear the decks and prepare for the week ahead, and it really helps.

Friday Morning, September 28

1) I’d made sort of an informal New Year’s resolution to get more comfortable with uncomfortable conversations. It’s not working.

2) Thinking of yesterday’s hearing, and the fact that National Coffee Day is tomorrow (on the internet, anything can be a holiday), a new response to an old meme came to my mind: “I like my coffee like I like my men: ethically sourced.”

3) This weekend is the first two-day weekend at home in six weeks, and to the extent possible I intend to be a hermit!

3a) It hasn’t all been drudgery; the first three of those six weekends were beach weekends at the home of friends. Then a rare work trip to DC, then a one-day memorial service at the office, and last week’s conference on Saturday.

Thursday, September 27 - Quotes of the Day

1) From Hamlet: “O Hamlet, speak no more! Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul, And there I see such black and grainèd spots As will not leave their tinct.”

2) From Soapdish: “I was very young then!” “Not anymore, babe.”

3) Actually, that’s quite enough, don’t you think?

Wednesday Evening, September 26

1) Met a colleague for drinks after work at ye Cytylystte, which I always enjoy - and don’t do nearly enough of.

2) Apparently that was during the time of only the President’s second press conference in less than two years, and it sounds like it was a complete embarrassment for the nation.

3) Walking home past the high school I looked up and stopped dead in my tracks - completely smitten by the beauty of the full moon with clouds between the stadium lighting. Simply beautiful - but we can’t put our faith in the inconstant moon.

Wednesday Midday, September 26

1) An office retiree returns weekly to conduct a meditation session at lunchtime. I find it valuable. But it’s not unusual for unbidden distractions to take over. This time it was Liebestraum.

2) The unexpected glitter of this day! I was thinking all gray clouds - and they’re out there, to be sure - but some high-wattage sunshine is dominating the afternoon.

3) Teal blue and lavender.

My Latest Musical Obsession Involves a Striptease

Because surfing through the Yewtybbe you never know what you’ll find, for the last week I have been enjoying Gloria Paul singing to “Your Goodwill Ambassador” in the Julie Andrews movie Darling Lili:

Sing along if so inclined:

Your-a goodweel ambassadeaur

Would like to kneau eef you're doeeeng oh-keh.

Your-a goodweel ambassadeaur

would like to feel yeau're eenjoyeeng your steh.

Eef yeau're cam ehnd placeed OR

You've got a red-hot desigheer to reaum

I want to get yew ahl to kneau Paree

For dere's a FSSST Paree

And dere's a slo-o-o-o-o-o-w Paree

Weeel do de whole beeg sex-ee potpourri

'Cahz babee Ieeem geaueeng to mek yew et 'eaume!

Actual English lyrics here.

This is Jule’s response in the movie:

Bring it, Julie!

Monday Morning, September 24

1) Autumn decidedly in the air since yesterday. Don’t know about you, but I’m ready for the change. What do you want to accomplish in this last week of September?

2) I’m sorry to say that, once again, I have become one of Those People Who Etiquetteer Complains About. Twice over the weekend I had to be pursued by Happy Couples who had not received my reply card to their weddings. Because I’d never sent it. Truly we best teach what we most need to learn.

3) Parlor coffee and devotional this morning included Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet. I plucked it from the rack this morning because my impromptu houseguest, a friend visiting from San Francisco, brought me to City Lights Bookstore there in 2015 where I bought my copy.

Thursday Morning, September 20

1) Yesterday was a lot about getting questions for which I didn’t have an answer: on parking (“Where is the exact entrance to the garage?”), on tech support (“Why can’t I see that on my screen?”), and forensic accounting. I had to rely on my colleagues, especially for tech support.

1a) Leaving the office later than hoped (worried I would not get to the dry cleaner before closing), suddenly this came into my head: Chopin’s nocturne opus 9, no. 2. My sweet Gramma used to play it, my mother used to play it, and I used to play it, too. And I never think of it now, so it was like a gift yesterday evening to bring me calm.

2) Plans to spend the evening communicating with a small list about a special event and working on an Etiquetteer review of Dinner in Camelot were dashed with the info that the condo association’s insurance inspection was the next day and that I would need to install new smoke detectors and a carbon monoxide detector beforehand. Now I can shake up a fabulous Colony Special martini, but I can barely tighten a screw in a doorknob, so you can imagine how that news left me. Thank goodness for my capable third-floor neighbor, who good-humoredly came down with his toolbox and got the job done.

3) Yesterday’s received wisdom: it’s easier (and a lot quicker) to destroy than to construct.

Wednesday Morning, September 19

1) Yesterday’s Scorpio horoscope read “Have you been thinking about changing careers, Scorpio? You might hear of some opportunities today, possibly through a colleague.” Well, yesterday evening a friend invited me to participate in a professional project next month that, while hardly indicative of a career change, really energized me.

2) Black.

3) The price of four consecutive weekends away from home followed by two weekends featuring one full work day is that I am living in domestic chaos.

Monday Night, September 17 - Conversations

Such an interesting evening of (sometimes) mixed signals:

1) When you find out the recommendations you asked for are all unworkable bullshit - and that the person sending them must have known they wouldn’t work before sending them.

2) Hearing great news about someone - and having to keep it a secret because other people closer to it haven’t been told.

3) Fab musical theatre history of drinks at the soon-to-be-closed Brasserie JO.

BONUS: The horrifying, horrifying discovery that the email you received means the exact opposite of what you thought it meant . . . and that you replied to it 24 hours ago.