Strongly Worded

Sundry Saturday

I was looking forward to a mellow, unstructured day (after last week's frenzy of housekeeping, and before next week's frenzy of family), and then when I woke up, nothing seemed particularly appealing. I ditched the plans for an 8 AM step class at the gym, then puttered around with OM, debating how to spend the time we'd been looking forward to all week. Options included checking out a new Egyptian art exhibit at the MFA, wandering around Boston's South End, watching an IMAX movie about Antarctica, watching any of a whole array of normal movies, and staying home and doing nothing. We weighed the pros and cons (mostly the cons) for an annoyingly long time.

Eventually we started off for the art museum and then aborted the mission when we got halfway to the subway. At that point we switched course, and decided to practice the highway drive to the Small Liberal Arts College (SLAC) where I work. There was simply no excuse; it wasn't too rainy, dark, or traffic-y. And I executed the round-trip route with trepidation, but no mishaps.

On the way back we stopped at Penzey's Spices and bought rosemary, bay leaves, and sea salt; we also stopped at a random convenience store near my house which carries injera (Ethiopian flatbread). When we got home it was dark, and it was barely 5 PM. OM decided to reorganize our spice cabinet and discovered that I already had two unopened bags of bay leaves and a large zip-loc bag of rosemary on hand. I tackled the weekly accumulation of stuff strewn all over the house: mail, a new bottle of contact lens solution, an empty Amazon shipping box, shoes. We made and drank coffee, washed a load of laundry.

This might sound ordinary and domestic, in the best sense. Still, there is something sad about a late November afternoon. The darkness slinks around you, then silently swallows up the day.

Posted by Dori at 6:10 PM