Like the disciples in the Garden I fell asleep when I should have been praying or taking notes, and didn't write a line last night. After work I had a lackluster workout, drove the 45 minutes home in a fog of worry, won 6.00 playing low stakes internet poker and fell asleep by ten. Had a can of Coke for dinner, indulging nearly all of my worst habits in one evening, sloth, worry, gambling, avarice, self indulgence, selfishness. I called Marie twice, once after work and once after the gym, but got voicemail. I called again before bed but there was no network. T-mobile, the gift that keeps on giving, and charges you a hundred and fifty a month.

I still have stories to begin and finish, but I have to pry them out. I hope everything is okay with Marie; I know her mother was in the hospital and the doctors found a blood clot in her leg on Sunday.

Sunday we had a picnic in the park. Marie read while I worked on the Gopher story, which was fun to write but looking it over, as Gretchen rightly pointed out, you couldn't hardly say it was appropriate for children. Which is all right. I was just having fun, anyway.. Occasionally the blog will make forays into things that are random or seem to to have no earthly purpose. One of these days I'd like to do an entry on "Twenty tricks to improve your gas mileage" or "Ten things I hate about paying bills." It's a long year, after all, a lot of blogging to do.

That's my commitment. I will blog for a year, and if hasn't grown into something or launched my writerliness (probably not a word, but you get the idea) I will delete it in one glorious huff. But I'll give it a year before I do. Most of my enthusiasms wane long before that.

It's time to leave for work now and I've got to shake myself and hustle because I don't want another demerit. July is a billing month, we just had a rate increase and a service change so the green light is always blinking right now, an agitated and inflamed consumer on the other end of the line with acid in their voice, demanding answers, retribution, or someone to hear their general rage against the machine. Only they can't reach the machine, just me, and I wind up standing in and standing against all their stored rages, all the irritations of paying bills and the general indifference of an indifferent world. It can be a little unpleasant. But we did have free pizza for lunch.

Time to go. I will not have another Coke for breakfast, no matter how good it sounds.