IT'S RESEARCH!

Do you ever get awakened by a whirling brain?  Like, perhaps you have allowed yourself to float along in sweet oblivion for a while, not really paying attention to how full your plate was getting.  But, as it turns out, your subconscious self was paying attention, and now she has decided it's time for you to get with the program!  So, while you are enjoying that sweet dream, she kicks into overdrive and starts churning and sorting, making lists and spinning wheels, until finally there is such a ruckus going on in there that it jerks you wide awake.  At 4:00 AM.

I don't think that has happened to me more than once or twice since I quit my job and moved to Wimberley, but it happened this morning -- with a vengeance!  Just this Sunday I had told DH that I was really looking forward to having a few days where I had nowhere I had to go, and nothing I had to do, but obviously, I was kidding myself.  I enjoyed one full day in the land of denial, snuggled up and enjoying every minute of this freakish cool front that blew through (even though it failed to bring any of the promised rain), but then my brain decided to snap me back to reality.  It reminded me that I am actually hosting a little party here in a few days, and not only have I done nothing to prepare for it, I still have a pile of boxes in the dining room, waiting to be unpacked.  It also reminded me that I leave for France in two weeks, and have done nothing whatsoever to prepare for that, either!

Well...maybe there is one thing I have done.  I did buy that book pictured above, and no, it's not just another excuse for wasting time.  It's research!  It just so happens that, completely by accident, John and I ended up with three days to kill in Marseille at the end of our river cruise, waiting for our flight home.  Since we knew less than nothing about that town, and part of this book actually takes place there, what better way to learn about it than via a "lighthearted romp...in which picking the right restaurant, choosing the best dish on the menu and, of course, finding the perfect wine (and female companion) to accompany the feast is every bit as important as catching the thief." -- Los Angeles Times

So, guess I'd better quit dilly-dallying here, and get back to that research!