For Laura

You guys, I love words.

Seriously, love words. Well, not ALL words. Some words are just dry and boring (like "situation" and "repercussion" and "somehow") but some words are scintillating, they mean something, you can chew on them. Savor them and roll them around your mouth, and they evoke images in your brain (like "eclipse" and "absorb" and "supercilious").

Sometimes I think I'm slightly abnormal because of how much I think about words. Confession: I started a page in my journal where I can write down the words I like. Even worse: I started going through the dictionary, starting at A, to find those words. And sometimes, I find myself spelling words over and over again. Like, almost to a rhythm, maybe while I'm stopped at a traffic light and in a hurry, or walking somewhere. It doesn't happen a ton, but it's a subconscious thing.

Anyway. Don't be alarmed. I'm perfectly stable.

And now I have entered that all-too-funny and fleeting stage of spelling words so that my daughter can't understand what I'm saying. For example: walk. She totally knows walk. At any given moment on any day, she would gladly stop whatever she is doing and go on a walk. She will never want that walk to end, and will cry when it's time to walk back home. Another word: binky. We're trying to get her to only use it when she sleeps. She's good about it. Unless some dolt slips and says the word in front of her and reminds her that, hey, where did that binky go? Why do I not have my binky? I WANT MY BINKY! And, finally: Cracker. Cracker represents anything edible. Clarification: Anything that she wants to be edible, even if it's not. I predict that "candy" will take cracker's place soon enough. Girl has a sweet-tooth and is often denied.

It's unbelievable how quickly things change.