A Précis

Here is a précis of my week, delivered to you in bullets because I really like bullets.

• July 1. Drive to Texas, have an interview with a bookstore (which went well, except for the fact that they will pay me less than the company at which I am already employed), visit Ikea and select a rather attractive bed frame.
• July 2. View my new apartment in McKinney, which will be quite nice, and drive back to Shawnee.
• July 3. Drive to Arkansas where I hang out with Philip and his family, visit my favorite used book store (Dickson Street Bookshop), and eat a wonderful dinner and finish reading The DIspossessed [review to follow soon].
• July 4. Breakfast with my future in-laws, a fourth of July cookout lunch with my extended future in-laws at the cabin, 4-wheeling around their land, dinner with Philip, fireworks with the grandparents and cousins.
• July 5. Sleep in, return to Dickson Street – I know I’m a glutton, but what can I do? – and drive back to Shawnee.

The only book I bought was Travels in Hyperreality, a collection of essays by one of my top five favorite authors, Umberto Eco. I began reading it, and I believe that it is too smart for me. At first this was depressing, and then I was energized by the hundredgazillion things there are to learn and ponder. I will have to read this book with a dictionary beside me.

Now Anastasia is jumping around my living room trying to explore and escape at the same time, dragging my flip-flops to the corner she has designated for her horde, twisting herself into and out of the cardboard tube, and generally wearing herself out.

This week I also learned that bathing a ferret is one of the funniest things a person can do in her life. Directions on the bottle of ferret shampoo (FerretSheen, cucumber melon scent):

Wet ferret completely. Apply liberal quantity of shampoo to coat and work into rich lather. Rinse well, towel dry, and comb.

If you imagine that the process actually occurs like this, you are a very naive person.