Andy made dinner for us tonight. Chicken breasts sauteed in garlic olive oil with oregano and mushrooms, wild rice with petite peas, and glazed carrots. Sooooo good. I bought most of the ingredients the other night when I went grocery shopping but it was Andy who volunteered to make dinner. We sat on the back porch as we had dinner. It was still light but the sun had gone down behind the rooftops and there was a breeze. It was wonderful.

Andy knows how unpleasant these last few weeks of work are and he was sweet to make dinner. He knows how desperately I do not want to go the mandatory store meeting tonight, when everything that will be discussed will probably cause me to internally fume. I only hope I can keep my mouth shut and try to be detached. I need to observe and take notice of what’s said. There will be details to put in the letter I’m thinking of writing Emily to let her know exactly part of why I gave my notice.

And Andy has stress of his own; the last week at work has been demoralizing for him too. Their new manager is making all these changes (mostly for the sake of change) and expecting all the changes to be implemented by the rest of the staff, who are overworked and behind with things already.

Why can’t life be more fun; why can’t work be more fun? We shouldn’t complain. We have it awfully good compared to others. We can have a nice dinner and a glass of Coke if we want. We can buy a CD of Debussy if we feel like it. But there should always be a striving for purity, for contentment and wholeness; complacency and apathy are terrible. So despite my uncertainty about the future, about what will happen after the 27th and I’m no longer working at the coffeehouse, this step is a good one. I’m doing what I can to find something else and that’s all I need to be doing right now. Life can be good without having to be fun 24/7.

I’m just really content reading the David Toop book “Ocean of Sound.” I’m almost finished with it. It’s the best book about music that I’ve read since the Alyn Shipton jazz book. I’m excited about the new Julee Cruise album which is released on Tuesday. It’s called “The Art of Being A Girl.”

David David Katzman gave me some great feedback on my manuscript. He spotted a lot of typos that slipped by me. Plus I think he genuinely enjoyed reading it, which is awesome.

Reckless Records now has 20 copies of “bowwow” to stock between their two Chicago stores. I hope this generates even more of a local audience.

Next Thursday I turn 27; wow.