Yes, I persist in recording minutiae to “make each day stand out” as Real Simple has instructed me.

Awake and functioning before 10 AM. No one knows why.
Unexplainable inspiration strikes.
Dress and load the car with a portion of the aluminum can collection.
          ALL BEFORE 11 AM
Make three trips to the Golden Goat, recycling 41.33 pounds.
Celebrate minor glee in reclaiming garage.
It’s only 12:30.
Something is clearly wrong with me. I should be back in bed for a nap.
Balanced checkbook, cleaned up piles of receipts.
Prepare deposit for the bank and drive off to take care of it with the ATM.
Revel in empty garage. 41.33 pounds of aluminum cans take up a lot of space.
Only had to visit 3 ATMs to find one that worked AND had deposit envelopes.
Return home. Hear scurrying squirrel in garage.
Apparently my reclamation was short-sighted. The squirrels own my garage.
Finally watched Ella Enchanted, which sucks

          (“Say no to ogrecide! Stop the Giant land grab!”)
          and has much NOT to do with the book.
Got cold and made chicken-corn chowder to warm up.
Finished (finally) reading Unexpected Development. It only took 2 weeks.
          NOTE: I should make more time for reading.
Minor household cleaning of little entertainment.
Now The Big Sleep is on.
          “I’ve got a bottle of rye in my pocket…I’d rather get wet in here.”
               Did that line really work at some point?

So apparently it was a bad idea to get dressed this morning, and then noting that I was early, go back to bed for a nap.

Make a note not to attempt naps 30 minutes before you need to leave for work.

Worked editing math journals lesson, but didn’t finish it.

Went to the grocery store, where everything has been moved about in some remodeling scheme to confuse consumers.

Came home and paid bills. Friday night fun. Woo woo.

Watched the exceptionally silly 13 Going on 30. Sorry. No quote worthy of memory.

Now I have The Human Stain on, which seems much more promising, but as it is already late, I won’t watch it all now. Befuddlingly, it is on the “Black Starz” channel even though the stars are all white. The plot is about passing, but still it seems like a stretch. Looked up the movie/book and did what what I am sure is a most excellent quote. Who knows if it’s in the movie though. Amazon tells us, “Viagra catapults Silk [the protagonist] into ‘the perpetual state of emergency that is sexual intoxication.'” Why can’t I write sentences like that?

Apparently The Daily Show does matter because the one night I’m tempted to go to bed early is the one night they have a piece on the SAT. I caught most of it anyway. That will teach me to follow the whims of my heart.

Hair care really does trump everything.
me + netflix = not working out
Edited book pairs lesson.
Cooked too many things, but ate them anyway
Considered going to bed at 7pm
Must stay up for Daily Show
Put on The Third Wheel—quote:
           “I’m gonna beat you like a rented mule, man.”
Considered going to bed at 9pm
Why does my neighbor leave every night between 9:30 and 10:30?
Why doesn’t seem to come home?
Daily Show can’t be that important
I am told that I am too moody.
I am broken.
Obviously.

Got up too late.
Went to work with wet hair. Again.
Worked on ASP stuff.
Cleared a month of stupid site maintenance to-do’s.
Inspired three-year-old to want to eat branches.
Restructured Captain John Smith.
Wondered why if there are butterfly houses there are not also cricket pens,
          roach museums, and spider duplexes.
Got my hair cut.
Downloaded iTunes to my cute pink iPod.
Finished editing Sixteen Cows.
Made mashed potatoes without burning anything or setting off the smoke detector.
Sulked for general reasons.
Failed at being a good person. Again.

Arrived at work seconds before conference call
Participated in pizza lunch meeting w/o eating pizza
Beowulf, Beowulf, Beowulf
Proclaim Beowulf finished.
Went about non-epic activities
Boss says, “Beowulf needs work.”
Went home, being passed by Urbana Fire Truck rushing mutual aid to Champaign
Beowulf, Beowulf, Beowulf
Proclaim Beowulf finished again.
Put bread in oven to toast
Burned edges of bread quite blackly
Smoke detector DIDN’T go off
Ate toast anyway
Looked at Vietnam lesson
Became depressed
Worked on Sixteen Cows lesson instead
Got really tired of the word “Bam!”
Joined Shamu in the pillow palace

So maybe yesterday’s list of interesting things wasn’t convincing. Maybe you’re back and wondering what I did today:

Went to work.
Attended a meeting.
Wrote the Ideas column for Inbox.
Left work.
Worked on the Beowulf fun.
Cooked dinner.
Set off smoke detector again (with steam?)
Moved smoke detector out of the kitchen.
Finished cooking, noting no burnt bits visible.
Moved smoke detector back to the kitchen.
Worked on Beowulf some more.
Ate snack that was unwise, gaining 50 pounds.
Wrote journal entry as an attempt at fame and glory.
Noticed failure of attempt.
Went to bed with Shamu.

According to this month’s Real Simple, I can make my life more memorable by taking more notes about it:

From “Jot It Down”
There’s a reason people say time flies. Some of us may think it’s because each day grows “shorter” in relation to the total time we’ve lived. Psychologists say it’s due to routines that make one day indistinguishable from the next. To make each day stand out, jot down one interesting thing you did (even if it’s just “Walked home with Mary”) in your date book. When you take a look back, you’ll remember the moments that add up to your life. [their emphasis]

March 2005, p. 20

Unfortunately, I do not know Mary, and I think it would be silly to walk home when I didn’t go anywhere in the first place. Perhaps I can demonstrate why people don’t remember the day-to-day minutia.

Worked on Inbox entry for Tuesday
Washed Hair & Laundry (in different locations)
Took trash to trash can
Cooked dinner
Set off smoke detector cooking dinner
Turned on a lot of fans
Ate parts of dinner not burned
Window shopped online for iTunes downloads and Pratchett books I don’t have time to read
Continued to procrastinate on editing Vietnam lesson plan by writing journal entry

The Duck of the Irish

Stanley seems to be a cat, and he’s on his 4th life. He perks up when people come near the tank again. He eats when I feed him. It’s like he’s a different fish.

I swear to you we all thought this fish was dead. Last week he was lying on rocks on the bottom of the tank completely limp. He was Knuffle Bunny boneless. Today he is sitting on the rocks rather than burying his head down in them and holding his fins up.

There must be some kind of gold in that medicine bottle.