2001-02-01 - 11:30 p.m.

I'm feeling much better today. I even split half of my chocolate-chip cookie with my boss when she emerged from her office in search of a sugar fix.

It was lovely in Music City today. I ate my lunch outside, over a copy of Stuck on Cactus: A Beginning Grower's Guide by David E. Wright. I don't plan on becoming a cactus enthusiast, but the book was fun to peruse - the goofy cartoons and silly chapter headings ("Cactus Fritter or Cactuscicle," "There's No Such Thing as Being Slightly Potted," and "Magic Beans and Cactus Seeds Are Not Related") were just right for my mood, and if I did want to cultivate more succulents, the book would indeed be a friendly guide to becoming a happy amateur.

Plus, the cover shows a grinning cactus with granny glasses reading a book. How can one resist?

I don't care if it means six more weeks of "winter" (the term definitely deserves quotation marks down here in Tennessee), I hope it's sunny tomorrow. Or, even better, if it's grey yet warm and dry: I have the day off and want to use a bit of it to take a long walk, and more of it to pry and pluck bottlecaps and other debris out of the back yard.

And if the rain raineth, well, there's always lavishing attention upon The Cat. Or upon the to-be-filed stack, which at this point happens to be larger than The Cat...