I've been following the exploits of Annie long before out of order was a blog - back when personal web sites were the rage. She doesn't update her site as much as she used to, but it's good to see a new post every few months.

It's irritating to me that CA is rapidly replacing the word cancer. At first, it seemed to show up only on forms where the box was too small to spell words out. But for a long while now, it's been showing up on requests and even doctors' reports - "patient has a history of lung CA." This morning, a resident on the phone actually said "this patient has been diagnosed with thyroid caw."

"It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words." - George Orwell, 1984

I skipped my coffee this morning, so I stopped by the vending machine for a bottle of orange juice when I got into work. I pushed the wrong button and got a bottle of orange-flavored soda instead. Bummer. That's not a good way to start a morning.

It's amazing to me how much I retained from that one month Spanish class. Connie and I were talking about Spanish, and I was able to explain to her, without referring to notes, the difference between calor, caliente, and picante.

What do I need to do to make my life thrilling again? Do I need to play my djembe more? Do I need to write more? Do I need a new hobby, or do I need to drop a few hobbies?

Do I need a new toy, or do I need to get rid of a few possessions?

Do I need a new job? My job is great. It allows me to bring my inner geek to the surface. I can freely discuss the half-life of gallium-67 with my coworkers. My job feeds my never-ending thirst for knowledge. Have I been there too long, though? Or is it just that I work most closely with the one person in the whole group that I can't work with? Is it that I'm halfway between leaving and staying?

Is it something simple? Do I need a new style? Do I need more sleep? Do I need to unplug?

Although, I am in awe of Let America Be America Again, too.

At this moment, my favorite Langston Hughes poem is Dream Boogie.

I saw a commercial this morning for The Video Professor, offering his "free" CD-ROM computer lessons, and it started me wondering: How many American households out there use spreadsheets and pie charts to manage family budgets? I have no idea - I'm just wondering.

Bainbridge Island Graduate Institute, right here in Washington, is offering an MBA degree in Sustainable Business. Sometimes I believe there is hope in the world.

I saw my first Alabama state quarter today. It's cool that they put Helen Keller on the coin, but she has no legs!

Today should have been better than it was. This was the third Sunday in our month to bring communion bread, it was our Sunday to bring food for Coffee Hour, and afterwards, it was a great party at Kurt & Lori's new house. All of it was muted by the second consecutive day of headaches and sleepiness. (Are the headaches caused by the sleepiness, or the other way around? I wonder.) It the the hot weather that's making me feel this way?

Nancy was absolutely beaming in church this morning. A couple of her poems have been selected for publication in Other Voices magazine. She really is a talented poet. As I pointed out to her this morning, we now have three published authors in our writers' group: Blanche, Don, and now her.

I followed all of Phillip's editing advice for my "Second Chances" story. I rewrote it, and put it in an envelope along with a cover letter. I'll drop it in the mailbox tomorrow morning, and send it on its way to The Sun. I like the way it turned out - except for that one sentence the Phillip and I agree is a bit awkward. But I'm going to leave that sentence in as a piece of wabi sabi, but mostly because I feel like I've fiddled with it enough.