I’m trying to type but there’s a giant black cat laying in front of my keyboard and it’s complicating the whole thing. There’s a thunderstorm brewing and I think the animals are tense as a result. Well, maybe not the dog – he’s got a rawhide bone and I imagine I won’t hear a peep from him until he’s finished it.

I found my car keys! We were retracing my steps for the past two days, and even though I swore I didn’t take them into Costco, I called anyway, just to double-check. Turns out, I must have just grabbed them out of habit, because the man who answered the phone at Costco asked me to describe them and then told me that he was holding the zebra and skeleton key in his hands! I was overjoyed and slightly embarrassed, but hey, I saved myself a ton of money and a call to AAA.

I got to see my first X-Men movie last night! I enjoyed it. I haven’t been to the movies in ages. My friend Duane works for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and he travels with them, so he met up with us to see the movie since they’re in town this weekend. It was fantastic to see him – I haven’t seen him since I graduated from college. It was brief, though, because after the movie, I was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to go home and crawl into bed. Hopefully he’ll get a bit more free time before he heads back home so we can actually catch up. (Whispered movie conversations don’t quite count.)

I got super sick this week. Monday night, without warning, it hit me, and I spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday in bed. The fever finally broke, but my energy levels aren’t quite back to 100% yet. I was looking forward to getting a lot done this week, but as it turns out, maybe sleep was just what I needed.

While it would be fantastic if just one thing would go right for me now or at some point in the near future, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. I’m just trying to ride it all out for now, and the idea of trying to conjure up some success or luck is swirling around in my head. Keep going forward, I think. And so I am tiptoeing, but also trying to make the most of this unexpected downtime. I am relaxing, or at least trying to. I’ve read more books in the past few weeks than I have in ages, and I’ve made plans to binge on some “Game of Thrones” tonight.

The boys are off camping; they’ll be back tomorrow. I’ve been enjoying the time alone. The silence is nice. Not having to answer to anyone is nice. Not having ESPN on is nice. (I was am so frustrated with DirecTV, because they’re pulling the old Comcast trick and upping our bill every month. During a phone conversation with them the other day, I accidentally dropped us to a package that does not include ESPN. I am, of course, not the least bit upset, but my brother will be. I told him it was his job to call DirecTV and fix the whole mess because I can’t be bothered since it’s just ESPN. Poor guy.)

The dog misses them, though. I’m not enough stimulation, even though we’ve been to the dog park, the park, and on walks. It’s hard to be entertaining all the time. I did take the dog with me to a bbq spot downtown last night. He got to sit on the patio and get tons of love from everyone, but he kept shooting his bored eyes at me. But man, he’s so cute.