Fun rediscoveries

I undertook a significant administrative reorganization of my room yesterday. I wasn’t quite aware of how much entropy was at work in my living quarters until I scratched the surface of a few unruly piles. I also found several articles of clothing that, I finally decided, will never be worn by me again and needed to find their way to the perpetual Salvation Army-bound bin that lives in our linen closet. In all, it was an appropriate and needed downsizing, and after a much-needed dusting (I’ve been sneezing ever since) and vacuuming I feel like I’ve almost moved into a brand new place.

While undertaking this effort my radio somehow landed on one of the local college’s jazz stations. The first song was Etta Fitzgerald’s “At Last” – which carries fond memories as an inside joke with my girls in Oregon – and I enjoyed the rest of the playlist as it continued. I listened to jazz almost exclusively during my high school years, but I have since wandered to other musical fare. It was a blast to rediscover how much I enjoy it, and two new stations are now set on my radio’s auto-tuner.

Fall has settled over northern Virginia with its biting mornings and vibrant colors. Almost every trip out of doors in the evenings is marked at some point by the faint smell of a wood-burning heath. (I wish we had a fireplace!) Sarah made some of those divine sugar and spice espresso cookies on Saturday – a hallmark of the fall and winter months around here – and at some point I am going to make some spiced cider to scent the house for the season.

The halls of Congress are quiet these days, almost eerily so, and were it not for my editors filling my box with corrections a half dozen times a day I would hardly know anyone else was in the office. Twenty one days till one of the most significant days in modern political history, and I’ll be able to watch it from the sidelines here in D.C. Bring it on.

Earlier tonight, from the top of the stairs, I heard Peter reading Sarah one of his stories, and it was refreshing to remember that real, honest-to-goodness romance still exists in this workaday world.

In other news, I can’t draw manmade structures to save my life, I am officially addicted to moderate doses of caffeine, and I just got a call from Cassidy confirming that she did survive the Hawaii quake and I still get to see her this weekend. *grin*