Sunday. November 25, 2001

ad for sale on ebay at some point

"What shelter to grow ripe is ours?
What leisure to grow wise."

Matthew Arnold, Stanzas in Memory of the Author of "Obermann"

It felt great waking up and knowing that the day was my very own.

The house was cool and I struggled into worn jeans, polo, sweatshirt, socks to get warm. Then I got some coffee and the Travel Section and finished the last two days of entries.

Then I called SuRu. She was feeling under the weather last night but declared that the stunning Austin fall day was perfect for a walk.

We met SuRu and Zoey and the five of us headed to Central Market. We sat on the patio and took turns going inside for food, coffee, bathroom and letting people admire the dogs. Two Weimaraners came by who have a cart that gets pulled behind their parents hog Harley. They looked friendly enough until my Chalow growled at them and they barked and one of them bared their teeth, straining at the leashes inches from us.

Home again, FFP and I ate a Salad Caprese (mozzarella, fresh basil, Roma tomoatoes and balsalmic vinegar) and some guacamole and chips for a change of pace.

Ah, to be reading the Sunday paper on the very Sunday. It's quite wonderful.

Yes, I read both Sunday papers. On Sunday. The parts I like to read anyway. It was amazing. I also read a couple of magazines, watched obscure foreign films on Sundance and made a list of things to do that had nothing to do with Thanksgiving entertaining. I didn't do anything about anything on the list, mind you. I just wrote it down.

I was one of those people not in the malls this weekend. In fact, except for taking my uncle to Lammes Candies and my cousin's son to Dragon's Lair game store, I didn't shop at all. I considered going to a drug store yesterday for hair gel and shampoo but I didn't do it. I did shop online. I sent shelled pecans from Texas to my sister in Colorado for her birthday. I ordered Baby Gap winter clothes for my great nephew in Colorado. Oh, and I bid on a few things on ebay that I might give people.

I don't really do Christmas anymore in the sense of making a list and buying everyone on it a present. If I see something and feel like buying, I will. And I'll make an effort to have a present for the four parental units that we will have a little get-together with. Nothing huge. Just some little gifts. It's hard, though, because they don't need or want a lot of things. Except my mom. And I have been taking her to pick out the things she wants.

In any case, I won't be a part of the commercial surge. FFP and I will probably get each other something. Maybe we will pick books out of the existing collection for each other again!

It's not that I don't feel for the retailers. I do. But I'm not a typical shopper anyway. If I were, the biggest shopping day of the year certainly wouldn't be the day after Thanksgiving.

JUST TYPING
Leisure.
No rush.
Deciding
for my own
pleasure
what to do.