Thoughts from my day off

I didn't have to work today, so I slept until 11:30, had lunch with my mom, took a nap, read, went for a walk, talked to Kathy on the phone, played with my new cell phone, caught up on some email correspondence (though not all of it), and now here I sit. It wasn't a very productive day, but it was nice.

We had a major thunderstorm this afternoon, which is almost a daily occurrence during the summer in South Florida. Murphy hated it, as he hates all storms, so he was glued to my side while he panted and shook like mad. After the storm, I took Murphy and Maggie for a walk and saw the most vivid rainbow I think I've ever seen. I was able to take a couple pictures, which I think turned out amazingly well considering I used my phone:

Not bad, eh?

I'm going to try to go see A Prairie Home Companion after work tomorrow. I've been dying to see it ever since I first heard it was in production. I've always loved the radio show and am curious about how it's been adapted to screen. I've heard good things, even about Lindsay Lohan of all people.

Also, I'm trying to start up a book club at work, for customers and other baristas. There are a few reasons for this. First, I want to find a way to bring some of our customers together and boost our presence in the neighborhood, since we're a new store. Also, I have talked to a handful of customers who seem like they'd love something like that. And I have to be honest, I am dying for some sort of cerebral interaction with people. I absolutely love the fact that my job doesn't require me to use up all my creative and mental energy at work, because it means I can use that energy for my own purposes. However, this town does not offer much in the way of collaborative literary or creative experiences. So I suppose I'll have to create some opportunities myself. Anyway, this book club is still in the very early stages of existence, as I'm only now letting people know and finding out who and how many people would be interested. Then I'm going to have to decide which book we'll read first. I wanted to wait on that decision until I have a good idea of who will take part. I'm pretty excited about the book club, as I've never coordinated something like this before.

I really really really hope I can get some good literary discussions going...

And if that gets off the ground ok, I may also look into coordinating an open-mic night sort of thing in the store. Maybe weekly or monthly, depending on the interest level. Who knows, though. Perhaps I'm overestimating the neighborhood's interest in such things. Wish me luck.

That's about it for me today. Not much else to report on. Well, other than the fact that I leave for Italy in just 16 days! I'm going with my mom and sister. We're going to visit Rome and Florence, and I plan to eat during the majority of my waking hours there. And drink truly fabulous espresso.

But for now, I'm going to bring this to a close and go read more of Jude the Obscure, which so far is beautiful, though terribly bleak. Not that I expected otherwise from a Hardy novel.