There is no cremora and the milk went bad. That means no COFFEE. This morning I awoke at 10:30! That is very unusual for me since I am typically an early riser. The reason I awoke so late is I spent 8 hours in the Midway airport waiting for my plane. I finally got home after midnight and fell asleep around 2:00 am. Once I got up, I bought a plane ticket for tomorrow. Yes, I am going back to Chicago. This is getting silly but I was aware of it when I signed on for the position. My new Nokia 3200 arrived and I have been playing with it. Gosh, I love gadgets! This thing has a camera, radio, and FLASHLIGHT built into it!

One of the reasons I bought the Donna villa is because it came with 3 POOLS! Do you know that I have not gone swimming once? What am I waiting for? Winter?

I really need coffee. It is after noon and I am still in my pjs. I gotta shower and get myself ready and go to the store and buy cremora and do my expense report and hook to the VPN and send out the emails I wrote in the airport. Grrrr

I spy with my little eye!

I am tired. Although there is no reason for me to be tired. I slept more than enough hours last night and I didn’t do anything physically strenuous today.

My bags are packed. I have some crosswords printed. I am ready to leave for the airport. Instead I would prefer to crawl into bed and hide under the covers.

I don’t mind going. I said yes to the offer, didn’t I? What do I do here anyway? Watch movies. Eat. Stare at the computer screen.

Time to go. I’ll be back Friday.

I spent the evening with my dear, dear friends Erin and Pete. The first part of the evening was filled with eating a delicious dinner of hamburgers done on their backyard grill. When the sun went down, we went to a nearby school and watched fireworks. When the fireworks were over we entertained ourselves by lighting Morning Glory sparklers and twirling them around in the backyard. Pete got out one of his old bottle rockets and launched it. The darn thing flew right over the house and landed in the street. I never played with firecrackers when I was young so this was my first experience with a bottle rocket. My mother always maintained that firecrackers were too dangerous and that we’d blow our fingers off. Well, last night as I twirled a Morning Glory sparker, one of the sparks landed right where my left eye and nose meet. It is just a little burn, hardly noticeable, but when it happened, I flashed back to the Louis Braille report I wrote in 3rd grade. How lucky am I that it didn’t hit my eye? It’s hard enough getting dates now, can you imagine how hard it would be with a Captain Hook eye patch? Although, one thing I have noticed is men do seem to like damaged women. The other day I said to Lisa that a successful pickup line might be, “Hi, I’m currently knocked up, have a child from a previous relationship, and am on a low dose of Xanax.”

Mr. Cocoa decided to cash in another life. My mother called and told me that last night, my father crawled on his belly, under the deck and grabbed Cocoa. Cocoa wasn’t too happy about getting caught but he drank some water and ate a little food. My mother checked him out and said that he had some cuts on his body and must have gotten into a fight. So my assumption was wrong. He wasn’t under the deck getting ready to check out. He was under the deck nursing his wounds. That silly cat. At 17 years of age (that’s 85 human years!), he is still out rumbling. Cocoa is b-b-b-bad to the bone.

Lisa and I went home for lunch. My dad cooked up hamburgers and ribs. My mom made fruit salad and a zuchini cake. Over the last few days my mom has mentioned that she’s worried about Cocoa. He hasn’t been using his litter box and he’s been acting a bit detached. Today she told me that he is missing. I immediately went outside and started looking for him. I found him under the deck. He is alive. He is lying on his belly and refuses to come out. Cocoa is 17-years-old. He has used quite a number of his lives. He’s been beaten up numerous times by larger, stronger cats. He came home a few years ago with a stick in his eye. Last year he developed diabetes and I had to inject him with insulin twice a day. Then one day the diabetes went away and I injected him with insulin and he went into insulin shock. He started to hallucinate and I had to catch him and pour corn syrup down his throat. Each time we were sure it was the end but he always bounced back. Not bad for a little cocoa-colored kitten my dad brought home from a Philadelphia junk yard. I hope he is able to rouse himself one more time. I hope this isn’t the end.

There was a time I wanted to live in Germany. That desire sprung from my love of scarves, chocolates, old buildings, and people treating me like sh*t. I also bought into the notion that America was big and bad and capitalism was no good (although they weren’t the reasons I wanted to flee– you see, I felt beckoned as opposed to repelled). Throughout high school and college, the vision of America painted in my mind was not a positive one. It seems odd now in retrospect that the institutions that should have been flag waving were flag burning. I came to my senses a couple years out of college and after a few trips back and forth from Germany. I realized that it was time to think for myself and stop letting myself get swayed by the media types. I now can say quite honestly that the United States is absolutely the greatest country and I am proud to live here and wouldn’t live anywhere else. Sometimes I want to go back to college and flash my voter’s registration card, just to freak out the professors.

When I think of the Fourth of July, one memory stands out amongst the others. I was a little girl visiting my Aunt Helen and Uncle Leo. It was close to July 4th and the day was quickly turning into night. Aunt Helen, always the most wonderful aunt, gave Lisa and me sparklers. We stood in the front yard holding the pyrotechnic out in front of us watching the sparks shoot out from every angle. My cousin David saw us standing there like trees an admonished us, “You don’t just stand there!” He grabbed my sparkler and ran all over the front yard. He darted back and forth, swinging the sparkler up and down. It seemed to me he became a human firework. The next time Lisa and I were given sparklers, we raced all over the yard, giggling and laughing, imitating Cousin David.

Gosh, it feels WONDERFUL to be home! Although my bed wasn’t very comfortable. I woke up numerous times through the night feeling very sore. I think my mattress needs to be replaced. I’ve slept on it since July 1998. It is one of those Swedish Foam mattresses that Sharper Image/Brookstone sells. How often does one need to replace a mattresss? I don’t know.

This morning I bit the bullet and upgraded my mobile phone. Last night, Lisa picked me up at the airport and then we had dinner at Mad King Ludwig’s restaurant on Sansom Street. I ordered a Berliner Weiße mit röt Schuß– it was sooo good. At any rate, my mobile phone rang and when I went to pick it up, the battery fell out. It was the last straw. Mobile phones are built to self-destruct after two years and I am right at that time. So I called AT&T Wireless and screamed and yelled and they gave me a $45.00 discount toward a Nokia 3200. Sure I would love a Blackberry especially because that is what all the cool business men keep pressed to their ears at the airport, but I can’t get myself to spend $400.00 on something that I will use to play solitaire. Besides, I need a new laptop on top of all this stuff. My Winbook died about a month ago and I am using one of my company’s old training laptops they threw away and I grabbed out of the dumpster. Yeah– it’s a real antique. I surfed Dell’s Web site this morning and they have some nice notebooks. The New Inspiron 9100 looks really tasty. Does anyone have any laptop recommendations?

It just dawned on me that I have been using an Earthlink dial-up number here at the hotel. I downgraded that service when I switched over to Verizon DSL a few months ago. This means I am probably paying 25 cents a minute and I have been online every night this week for at least an hour or two. UGH!!!!!!!

Off to work. I am so tired, all I want to do is sleep. I can’t wait to get back home.