Today was one of those blissful Saturday mornings where I woke up and realized I had absolutely nothing to do. This is very rare for me since I have 12 family members that all live within a five mile radius of my house, and not a day goes by without at least three of them calling me to invite me somewhere.  I am not complaining, but I’ve learned not to take for granted the silence that lingered this morning from the minute I woke up, until this very moment in time: my cell phone has not rung once. (The only explanation I can think of for this anomaly is that an armed robber has my mother in restraints right now and even at gun-point she is still saying something like, Before you shoot me, I just need to call my daughter and make sure she ate today. At least, just let me leave her a voicemail. Or call her two times in a row and leave her a voicemail each time.  Oh, and tell her when she says that she never listens to my voicemails anyway that one day ,when I’m dead, she’ll appreciate having my voice on tape, even though she reminds me every time that she will never have a hard time conjuring up the sound of my voice whenever she wants to. She has no idea how much she’s going to miss those phone calls when I’m gone. And her brother, don’t even get me started.  He still thinks I don’t know that he intentionally hangs up the phone when I call. Shoot me. Just shoot me. That’ll really make them feel bad. At this point, the armed robber has probably given up and left mom and her belongings intact.  I can almost hear my cell-phone start to ring and the ensuing voicemail: NUNCA TE VAS A CREER LO QUE ME HA PASADO! CASI ME MATAN Y UDS. DOS NO CONTESTARON SUS TELEFONOS! DIOS, TE SUPLICO, QUE TE HICE PARA HABERME MANDADO ESTOS HIJOS DEL DEMONIO!).

God, I can go off on some tangents, can’t I?

Anyway, today I also realized how old I’m getting as I created the following list of reasons why this afternoon has been so perfect:

1.  Went to the bookstore and bought a good book, along with a ton of other crap that I didn’t need.  However, that mechanical wind-up monkey by the check-out counter was just begging to be taken home.  The sales clerk had to give me a stern look to finally lure me away from the ENTIRE shelf of wind-up toys and stop holding up the line.  Because, of course, I couldn’t control the impulse to wind them all up, and place them all in a row before I decided exactly which one I wanted.  I took my sweet time. Why do they sell wind-up toys at a bookstore anyway? For people like me, that’s why.

2.   Came home and made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and washed it down with a glass of milk.

3.  Took a two hour nap.

4.  To my utter delight, turned on the TV and there was a documentary playing about Alaska, only to be followed by one about K2! TV that good is hard to come by nowadays.

5.   Watched Michael Phelps whoop Cavic in the 100 meter fly of the Swimming Championships in Rome.  Watched the replay over and over again, while I commended myself for finally breaking down and buying those Vanquisher goggles.

6.  Daydreamed about the tacos I will be eating this evening at my friend’s house, as I break the silence of the day with some much needed good conversation, food, and drinks.