My day.

Day off from work.
Extra-long workout.
Healthy lunch at Blue Orchid with one of my favorite cousins.
Fingerprinted at the Lincoln Police Department.

The fingerprinting was for my Peace Corps application. The woman making the prints was so chatty and adorable and messy. I wish I'd had my camera with me.

Then I got coffee at Cultiva so I could chat with the owner, who thanks to an article in Monday's Journal Star I just learned is a former Peace Corps volunteer. He was so enthusiastic about it -- he worked with farmers in Honduras. I'm newly inspired. He's also passionate about making sure coffee farmers and workers get a fair price for their work, so throw your coffee biz his way!

This evening I'm off to a Peace Corps info session on campus. Expecting further inspiration.


Sarahndipity.

Thanks to hearing her interview yesterday on "Fresh Air," I remembered to tune in last night to the season opener of "The Sarah Silverman Program." (My treat for driving to Schuyler, giving a presentation on Nigeria to my dad's Rotary club, driving home, cleaning house like a maniac and falling, exhausted, onto the sofa.) The Nation online has a good review of Silverman's humor. Me, I'm definitely in the "love her" camp. The reason her humor makes us so uncomfortable is because of how accurately she mirrors our culture. To laugh at her racist jokes is to laugh *at* the racists, not *with* them. Using humor to belittle what should be brought down. Me, I'm OK with that.


Linguatastic.

Who was it who suggested this collection of Geoffrey Nunberg essays on linguistics? BlankPhotog? Longstinger?

Whoever it was, thank you! I'm enjoying it. Deftly, gently humorous and good-humored take on words and culture. A relief after some heavier stuff I've been reading lately.


No more 69.

Much as it pained me to change my coveted "69" (heehee) number of friends on MySpace, I just had to honor a friend request from Bittybox, a Cali singer/songwriter with a badass voice and sensibility. Check her out!


Signs of fall.

1) The sweater I treated myself to yesterday at Stella. A lovely, mustardy yellow cardigan, hipsterized with blousy sleeves and a swingy cut.

2) First bath of the season last night, in a freshly scoured tub. To me, baths are a winter thing; they're about relaxing, not cleansing. (I'm weird/anal enough that I'll often shower first.) The luxury of steaming hot, scented water, a glass of wine, a good book. A long soak that loosens all my tight ends, muscular and mental.

Today, of course, it's back to mid-80s and stickily humid. I don't like that. I do like fall, except as a harbinger of winter.