Austin, TEXAS, January 18, 2006 — Awakened three times before it stuck. Very early by some books and a cassette falling from the table or shelf in the room outside our bedroom. Then by the alarm going off on the little radio in the bathroom FFP listens to classical music on while he grooms. (Maid must have pushed button while cleaning up.) And by FFP's dentist calling to try to get him to take a cancelled appointment instead of one he has scheduled.

It's all a matter of setting priorities, isn't it? The things I must value the most are: (1) exercise; (2) this silly journal (and now the personal one on my hard drive that backs it up); (3) eating; (4) keeping up with friends and art and arty friends. and, of course, (5) making sure the parental units are OK.

So, yeah, those are my sad priorities. I occasionally decide that I want to do something and then, prompted by deadlines

or meetings I show up. Tennis. Charity duties. I've been worrying over a capital campaign I'm on and over a dinner party raising money for Project Transitions. (Housing for HIV/AIDS patients.) My duties on my committee at the Country Club bubble up when there are meetings and required reviews of the concerns of the committee. (We had a meeting today. I think I offered one good idea. Maybe.)

My in-laws needed a ride today. I told them that whoever got home from their meeting first would pick them up. FFP got home first and took them somewhere to get something notarized. "It is easy to get a cab to go to that bank but hard to get a cab home for some reason," my mother-in-law said. Not that she needed a reason to have us drive her instead. She did say she was going to grab a cab to the grocery store this morning, though, since we'd drive her to this other errand in the afternoon.

Keeping up with our friends is important to us. (To my friends reading this: yes, you, too. I didn't say I did a good job just because I made it a priority.) But we set a date today to treat a couple to dinner because they had extended so many kindnesses to us. (Although I'm going to work in to that dinner conversation asking another favor, I think. They are huge donors to the museum and I'm hoping to score good tickets for the Christo and Jeanne-Claude lecture in March. Sometimes I like people just to be with them. Sadly, though, we want things from each other sometimes, too, don't we?)

One of the friends I do a good job of keeping up with (because he regularly makes sure we lunch) is a retired city worker turned playwright. Tonight, his first actual production will occur when a five minute radio play of his is included in a set of winners of a Austin Scriptworks contest. I have reserved tickets and thus lead FFP on a merry chase to east Austin for a 9:15 performance. The friend's piece is good as are the others. This is not a misplaced priority, I don't think, keeping up with friends, art, arty friends.

The journal now that may be a misplaced priority. But I have such a poor memory for so many things that I think if I didn't have a journal of some sort I would simply lose myself. Lose my ideas. Forget what movies I've seen and what facts I used to know.

But some reassessment is in order, I think. Just what should I be putting first?