AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 6, 2006 — There just wasn't a highlight. No moments of heightened feeling. No revelations.

I did things like laundry, putting party things away, ironing, washing dishes. I punched buttons on the phone until I got a nurses' voice mail and got through the morass to get them to fax blood work orders to a lab for my dad. I talked to my dad about doctors, our trip. I talked to one of my aunts.

I scrubbed the top of my stove. I read the papers. I worked crosswords.

I put my coffee machine through its cleaning

cycle.

I only left the house once. To go to the club. I did a water aerobics class with my dad and a bunch of women. I rode the recumbent bike for forty minutes and did a few ab exercises and some bicep curls.

I didn't shower until late at night. I read all three of the day's newspapers. I watched some of the shows I can't seem to stop watching like CSI.

It was one of the dullest days of my life. My chores all seemed magnified. But it wasn't all that bad. Dull is sometimes welcome.