jianantonic | That's better...sort of.

Time still isn't really passing. I mean, 2:04? Seriously? Three more hours here, then two more hours before I go to the gym, then an hour and a half there, then a few hours still before I go to bed, then a few hours after that before Ahren gets home...when did the day get so long?

I always feel like I never have enough time to do everything I want to. Lots of people my age have far more active social lives, and they work about the same hours that I do. I'm jealous of these people, but I don't know where I would find the time to do something like host a bbq on a Tuesday night at eleven pm. Not that this is something I'd want to do, really, just an example of one of the things my friends are doing without me while I'm either sleeping, working, or playing bridge.

Anyway I usually feel strapped for time, but today there's just an abundance of it, and I wish I could just fast forward through the boring parts.

Emily and I had lunch together and then went to CVS so I could pick up a birthday card to mail to my niece. I started off looking at the section "Birthday - Kids," but came up empty. The only ones I liked were boy-specific. All the boy cards had astronauts and dogs and stuff like that, but all the girl cards had shoes and purses and kitties. I like shoes and purses and kitties as much as the next person, but I don't want my gender defined by them, and I certainly wouldn't identify shoes and purses and kitties as parts of my life that are so important to me I must immortalize them in birthday cards. Where's the girl astronaut? Oh, that's right, she's in her car with a diaper on, en route to start some drama with her pseudo-boyfriend's less-pseudo girlfriend, ruining it for the rest of us. Just when the ladies were starting to get some due credit, some crazy bitch goes and sets everyone back another decade. Damn.

So we moved on to the niece-specific section of birthday cards. These were better cards in general, but I hated how they used the word "niece" as if that is the girl's name, or how I refer to her. Like, "Happy Birthday, Niece!" Um, she has a name. I know the fine folks at Hallmark aren't going to make a different card for every possible name out there, but I'm just saying don't use "niece" like it is her name, because it's not. It reminded me of the Pearl Jam song "Daughter." "Don't call me daughter...." Whatever happened to "To a wonderful niece,"? Whatever, man. I ended up going with a generic humor card that she probably won't get, but the adult who reads it to her will get a good laugh out of it, so it'll do. It's got a cow and everything. (Not a kitty, though, so it was probably made for a boy.) I also wrote her a little letter and tucked it inside. I love being an aunt.

So anyway at least a few minutes of my day actually flew by - the fun ones, of course. I'm back in the office now, alternating between actual work and bemoaning the length of the day.

Thanks, Jen, for actually posting something today. Come on, the rest of you. Get to it. I need reading material...

Peace.