"It might have been easier and more sensible to..

..have met and fallen heavily for some glamorous unattached stranger, but the one thing love never did have was logic." - Dick Francis, Banker

"for the record, I am going outside in my pink penguin pants." - gretzky

Wallace sometimes needs to go out at times that are inconvenient to myself. Being already in pajamas is one of those times.

It was so chilly this week we finally turned the heat on, and I brought out the flannel pink penguin pants, my favorite winter pajamas EVER. They are a tad bit - okay, a LOT - ridiculous looking - and last night I took Wallace outside while wearing them.

Thankfully only Natalie and Finn the Irish wolfhound were walking down the street, and Finn said hi to Wallace while I said hi to Natalie. Natalie likes to walk Finn in her pajamas too, fleecy ugly brown sweat pants, and this makes me feel better, since she's one of those 110 lb, blond haired, blue eyed women who look great without makeup, the kind of woman that makes me feel like I've eaten too much ice cream just by looking at her.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the pink penguins will make another streetside appearance at some point, since I'll wear them all winter long and Wallace has to go outside a lot.

i like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework - lily tomlin

I think we always need teachers, no matter where we are in life, and Ann Patchett does too. She talks about this in her little commencement speech book, What Now?. She thought she had written a great speech and then asked one of her old teachers to read it..he told her it wouldn't work, and she needed to do it over again.

"This was not a situation that called for a rewrite. It was time to let the whole thing go gentle into that good night. I sat on my couch for a long time and stared out the window. I had no interest in starting over again, but there are some people we grant the role of oracle in our lives and when they speak - rarely, gravely - we are well-advised to listen. When I had written my new speech (a shorter version of this book), I did not send it back to Allan. I didn't need to. After all, I am a good student. I had done everything he told me."

(page 90)

"the secret is...

finding the balance between going out to get what you want and being open to the thing that actually winds up coming your way. What now is not just a panic-stricken question tossed out into a dark unknown. What now can also be our joy. It is a declaration of possibility, of promise, of chance....It takes discipline to remain curious; it takes work to be open to the world - but oh my friends, what noble and glorious work it is....Make up some plans and change them. Identify your heart's truest desire and don't change that for anything. Be proud of yourself for the work you've done. Be grateful to all the people who helped you do it. Write to them and let them know how you are. You are, every one of you, someone's favorite unfolding story. We will all be anxious to see what happens next."

(pages 76-80, Ann Patchett, What Now)

Isn't that last sentence just gloriously sappy and sweet and true all at the same time? Love it, love it, love it.

the he's just not that into you debates

are many, and i will not spend much time on them here.

I will say, though, that the red flag exercise is HILARIOUS (page 58), and also that Greg is funny: "I think you should lose 175 pounds - in the form of your loser boyfriend - not the twenty you're talking about" (page 62).