Today was our turn to bring snacks to preschool (apple juice boxes and graham crackers in individually wrapped packages, in accordance with The List). We got to school on the early side to drop things off and AJ and a small girl got into an argument over what color Elmo is (Warning, for anyone reading from a cubical: this site loads with sound). �Geen!� said the girl. AJ shook his head. �No! He�s boo!� After a few exchanges, the girl decided that maybe he was �boo� after all. The teacher, meanwhile, had walked up and looked mildly alarmed as she was setting out bowls of bright red paint and brushes alongside paper cutouts of Elmo. �Wait, isn�t he red?� she asked with an almost panicked look on her face. I reassured her that he was. �Grover and Cookie Monster are blue. I�m sure that�s what they�re thinking of.� She nodded, relieved, before she ran off to stop a boy from painting his own nose. This is what passes for adult conversation in my world.

The beautiful, play-outdoors-all-day weather has finally come to an end and has been replaced with a wonderfully blustery fall day, perfect for curling up on the sofa with a good book. I had promised myself I would go to a lecture on campus today, which might have offered some real conversation with grownups. But given the weather and my state of mind, I suspect I might be trading in a day of prolific work in a warm dry room for a day being drenched in order to attend a lecture that may not be at all interesting and would have me stuck on a standing-room only train home at rush hour. After going to the conference a week and a half ago I worry a bit about working in isolation -- something my dissertation advisor has clearly been concerned about too. Still, there will be more time for such things after the dissertation is done while I'm trying to find a job to.

Yeah, yeah, a lame excuse if I ever heard one. But there's hot tea in the pot and leftover blueberry pie in the refrigerator. Would you leave? I thought not. Mmmm. Pie.

If you are not so fortunate as to have pie handy, you could perhaps plagiarize this essay instead.

Now, where's my fork?

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