Five Simple Pleasures

Clockwise from upper left: splurging on a superslick lipgloss quad; making a new iMix for a friend; contemplating a nearly empty month on the family calendar; skype-ing with my mom; knowing that the situation in the lower right corner can wait.

No photo to accompany this last one, but I have been getting a kick out of getting acquainted with current commercial pop music. Summer vacation has whet my appetite for bubblegum. Discoveries: "Girlfriend," Avril Lavinge, "Big Girls Don't Cry," Fergie, and best of all, Give it to Me by Timbaland. I had it on nearly endless loop today. At one point, I forced Patrick to stop working and listen as I recited the lyrics, as only a white, middle class soccer mom can. Sample: I'm real as it come if you don't know why I'm fly/Seen you tryna switch it up but girl you ain't that dope/I'm a Wonder Woman, let me go get my rope.

I was perfectly delighted with myself. Patrick, not so much.

Also, in making my friend's iMix, I came to the conclusion that all of contemporary music—across all genres— is concerned thematically with either getting it on, or getting wasted, or both. Except one song, which is about driving around. It's by Springsteen.

Don't expect my brain back much before September.