A Lovely F-ahhhh-ll Day
2004-09-23, 2:03 p.m.

Fall is here, and the livin�s easy. At least, it�s as easy as it can be for such an EXRAVAGANTLY GORGEOUS day, one of those days that it�s so friggin� pretty that a rabid skunk could chew your leg off and you�d still be totally smooth about it. Rays of Prozac, that�s what�s shining on us this week, mood-altering goodness that soaks into your skin and bones and brain and nothing, NOTHING can get you down. Did I mention that I love Fall?

The only one pissed around here is the cat, which is something that just comes naturally to cats, anyway. The store was sold out of his royal fuzzybuttness� din-din of choice, so I bought a different brand. He rebuffs me at half-hour intervals, because he�s not certain he has yet drilled in his point that his food is UNACCEPTABLE. UNACCEPTABLE, DO YOU COMPREHEND, YOU FURLESS OAF? His highness can just fatten his hoity-toity posterior on some exterior vermin until I am so inclined as to haul myself to another store. I am superior. I have opposable thumbs. I have the car and the money and I say you can eat cheap kitty food. So there.

Even getting up earlier than should be legal, I am in a good mood. I did not get the message from the school coupon book chairperson that she wouldn�t need my services at 7:10am after all, so the kids and I showed up bright eyed and bushy tailed. It wasn�t a loss, because Daughter had a nice leisurely breakfast at school, and I was there ON TIME for a change for my other slated activity. Today Daughter�s school held what they call the Eagle X games, where the kids participate in a variety of activities to earn pledge money. They could do laps on scooters, roller blades, the rock climbing wall, etc. I was recruited to be a spotter for the rock climbing wall from 7:30-11:00. Son vegged in the gym corner, his brain wired to his G@me Boy, while I cheered on sweaty 6th graders. The kids were bubbly and excited and very polite, considering they had been granted temporary reprieves from pencil-pushing drudgery. No ape-shit young�un�s today. Must be the weather. Must be FALL.

Hubby and I watched something interesting on PBS last night, The Question Of God, an envisioned dialogue between Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis, interspersed with a roundtable think-tank comprised of various and sundry hoi polloi. The viewpoints were dynamic and thought-provoking, no matter what the catalyst of belief (or non-belief). In the end, it reinforced my choice to have faith. If nothing else, we have Pascal�s Wager to ponder:

If God does not exist, one will lose nothing by believing in him, while if he does exist, one will lose everything by not believing.

Shoot to win, I say.

Son did try inadvertently today to have us arrested. I told him to gather a few things to keep him occupied during the Eagle X games, such as his G@me Boy and a few books. When we walked into the school, I took my first glance into the bag. Yes, my bad, don�t remind me. He had brought along a sackful of plastic swords, knives, throwing stars, and other sharp Ninja poky-things. With nary a flinch I asked the office staff to kindly lock the bag in the vault along with my purse for the duration. Although Son wanted only to defend home and hearth from the invisible horde, we managed to stay safe without his prefab plastic assistance.

Another Sally�s tidbit of advice to improve your overall quality of life: If you microwave a pot pie for supper, be sure to remove it from the microwave before lunchtime the following day. Nuclear pot pies coalesce into industrial-strength adhesive when left unattended for 17 hours.

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