Blessed Nothing

I have nothing meaningful or insightful to say today, so I’ll just throw out some random bits of information.

Most days I don’t eat all of my lunch. This is especially true of the Guiltless Black Bean Burger at Chili’s and the Lunch Special #3 (or is it #2?) at Casa Mexicana. I usually eat half, or so, and bring the rest back to the office to eat later in the afternoon. This is almost always at, or at least very soon after, 3 PM. When 3:00 comes, I head to the refrigerator and heat up my leftovers for a delightful afternoon snack. It is one of my favorite moments of the day.

Apparently our office cat, Jack, likes it, too. I return to my desk and sit down. Soon after that, Jack leaps onto my desktop only to be pushed back down into the floor. I always assumed the smell of the food attracted him. Today I learned otherwise.

As I waited for the microwave to finish re-heating my Turkey Club, I noticed Jack out of the corner of my eye. He was sitting in the doorway, licking his lips. Apparently it’s not the smell, but the beeping of the microwave that alerts him to my snacking plans.

My mom and I are going to see Spamalot tonight in Huntsville. I’m looking forward to the show. The tickets were one of my Christmas presents. We were originally going to the matinee this Saturday, but I will be in Gatlinburg. Luckily the VBC was willing to let me swap performances.

Speaking of Gatlinburg, I’m going with the youth from Edgemont to the Encounter retreat this weekend. I’m pretty excited. This is the first youth trip I’ve been on since I left youth ministry. Youth trips are stressful, but fun. Plus, I love Gatlinburg.

I took my daughter out to eat for Valentine’s Day. We actually went Friday night instead of Saturday. She told me we should go on Friday because on Saturday, “Everything will be packed.”

Friday night I brought her some flowers and a card. Then we got dressed up and went out to eat. We ended up at Peking Chinese Buffet. Not exactly a dress up and go eat type of place, but it was where she wanted to go. We ate dinner then spent an hour or so at PetCo petting cats, watching mice & rats & ferrets run and play, and admiring the tropical fish. All in all, we had a marvelous evening. I think we’ll make it a tradition.

We have our second recording session tomorrow. I still need to finish a couple of songs. It’s a bit nerve racking. Maybe I’ll have some time to write this weekend. Then the songs will be ready for our next studio time in a couple of weeks. I’m excited about recording again, but I’m going to miss the beginning of Lost. Yes, I have TiVo, but it’s not HD. I’m spoiled.

This is how my typical day at work looks: 6:30-7:20 – arrive, check e-mail; 7:20-7:40 – take Jacob to school; 7:40-9:00 – 147 phone calls, 3 angry e-mails, 4 trips to Lowes, and a fax; 9:00-9:20 – snack time; 9:20-11:00 – a whole lot of nothing; 11:00-12:00 – Lunch; 12:00-3:00 – more nothing; 3:00-4:00 – 331 phone calls, 6 angry e-mails, 2 trips to suppliers, 2 faxes, and a delivery to sign for; 4:00-4:55 – calm, quiet; 4:55-5:02 – 17 more urgent calls and a partridge in a pear tree; 5:02 – go home. In other words, I have flourishes of activity separated by periods of nothingness. I just finished a flourish of activity. Now, it’s blessed nothing. I'd better leave before the phone rings again.