A while ago Ben accused me of using my photographs here to substitute for words on days when I’m avoiding writing, or have nothing to say.

What’cha think’s going on in my head tonight, Ben-o-mine?

P.S. I switched yesterday’s image to a black and white version — these shots are so bright the page needed to rest its eyes.

I think I’ve already mentioned that I walk past a Tootsie Roll factory on my way back from Central Square, and that in warmer months it emanates headily sweet smells while white-hatted workers sit on the bench outside.

Today I finally noticed, after over a year, that it has these amazing pipes running up the side of the building, making it look all industrial and stuff.

Me, I am all industrious and stuff. I have no news — work is busy, I am busy, we made cajun-spiced grilled salmon tonight and I have been drinking mug after mug of Lipton tea laced with sweetened condensed milk. This afternoon I was washing out the teapot, in which tea had sat overnight, and it smelled like home.

We’re still waiting.

Today was a good day at first. We had bacon and eggs and toast and juice and coffee for breakfast, which started things off on a happy bite. I vacuumed a bit and finished listening to an audiobook I’ve been plugging away at for more than two months now. Ross shone the bathroom sink until it was a thing of beauty. And I talked to Jenn on the phone, which was lovely even though she was anxious about Major Career Events and I would have rather been with her so I could have given her a hug. (By the way, folks, if you know Jenn, send her some love.) The sun was shining. I didn’t have to have surgery. All was well with the world.

Then I started working on an article about a scientist whose work I had a really tough time understanding, condensing, and explaining at an appropriate level, in the requisite number of words. The first third of the piece went well (yay nuclear fission! I can explain you!), but the second section involved lots of disparate and incredibly involved ideas in theoretical physics. You remember how I feel about theoretical physics. I tried very hard to figure out how I could write about it, and I ended up having to start that section over, twice. It made me frustrated and annoyed and I could see no end in sight.

But! The good news is twofold:

1) I finished the section. It’s not great, but it’ll do.
2) While I was working on it, I started this thread over in one of the communities I’m part of at Flickr, and got all kinds of lovely responses from people I really do not know at all. Go look! It is really a neat example of the nice things that sometimes happen on the internet. *Later: I just realized you have to be signed in to look at that thread. Meh. Well, the story is that I explained my plight and asked people to post science-themed pictures to cheer me up and keep me company. So people shared amazing shots taken from under their microscopes and on their marine biology expeditions and of their bottles of nucleotides. People offered to help me explain quantum electrodynamics. People sent me private messages with the names of professors who could talk with me. And then they just chatted about science and physics. It all made me quite happy.*

Actually, the good news is threefold.

3) Ross got a new pair of reading glasses yesterday! He is quite the spectacle in them. He went and got his eyes checked, and it turns out that not only were his old reading glasses no good, but he could also stand to have a pair of everyday glasses for when he’s not reading. So now he has two pairs, and I can wear my “I Heart Skinny Guys With Glasses” t-shirt whenever I like.

Here he is in Harvard Square showing them off for the first time:

And here is a three-year old photo of him wearing his old pair, which are now becoming his everyday glasses. It also shows off his brief flirtation with an earring. He left it out for too long and it closed up; sad because look how sexy!

(It only appears as if he’s gotten more mature and serious in the past three years.)

I have a YAM* in mind with a subject upon which which I fully intend to expound, at length.

It was going to be tonight, but then we started making turkey burgers and fries and it looks like between consuming those things (with my new chewing ability!) and sitting pretty on my couch watching a movie, I am not able to make time in my busy schedule for anything other than the shortest of random list entries (I know you love those). Voila! Here one is. I am not one bit sorry.

Thoughts and Observations:

Sweet dreams, lovelies.

*Yet-Another-MetapostaboutLifeinGeneral**

**IknowIknowIcheated.

My mother sent me an email this morning entitled “Conversations With Asher.” I read it, and laughed, and called Ross over to look at it. I imagined the scenes described in the email and heard, quite clearly in my head, the voices of my nephew and his grandmother. The thought of it has stayed with me all day.

Here is part of what my mother wrote:

Early this morning… Asher at the kitchen door.

Asher: “Asher watch the world go by.”

Beautiful baby boy, for you today I took this photograph of two dreamy mannequins who, like you, stand and watch the world go by.

It’s a little concerning to me that I haven’t left my apartment in almost four full days now, and yet I feel absolutely no restlessness or pull towards the outside world. I have been perfectly happy right here in my cocoon of narcotic calm, although I have to admit I am getting very tired of soup.

Today I felt very well, though, and was determined to use my last day away from work in a productive manner. So I got started on some freelance work and took several photographs of the black and chrome espresso cups Michael and Laura gave us last year. I’ve always liked how dark and shiny they look, and the way the smooth curve of each of their handles fits into the other like a soft, sleek lock or the fingers of two loving hands.

P.S. Chaos-fighter Ben — with whom I accidentally had a conversation tonight about entropy — has incredible news. Ask him about it.