1) I discovered today while I was cleaning the kitchen and listening to this Radio Lab episode that one of my life goals is to witness at least one Ring cycle in its entirety. I’ve heard parts of it before, of course, but somehow today it made me cry into the coffee grounds and I knew it lay in my future. It is a good thing I have four or five decades of useful opera-enjoying life left in me, because that leaves lots of time to go through this process.

2) The flowers my parents sent me still look incredible. The lilies have opened out like small white claws, the tulips are so yellow they almost resemble turmeric, and there is some clustering bloom in the bunch that smells exactly like pepper.

3) I spent the entire day today writing very daft little poems for Kindergarteners, each of which included words that exemplified various combinations of phonics sounds. They’re horrible doggerel, but some of them made me laugh and the job sure beat editing lesson plans for a change. I think it was the first time since October that something about work felt like fun. Too long; I need to figure that out.

4) This woman? Is a wonder.

5) There are only two cheesecake brownies left in the fridge, which is painfully sad, but means that I have personally consumed six cheesecake brownies in the past four days. Oh, my belly—it is a cheesecake brownie refuge.

6) Ross and I talked mathematics all through dinner. I really like the fact that he makes it okay for me to keep asking questions that sometimes feel stupid, and always takes my frustration seriously. On a bad day I end feeling like there is a chasm between me and true understanding; on a good day I feel the same way, but I also know I am putting my foot firmly on the tightrope in front of me instead of stepping out into the abyss.