After two weeks of lovely, restful travel I am back home and am blogging from my red couch. So many things to do. I have about 40 books out from the library (mostly for work), about 150 movies on my Netflix queue (many for work!), a megaton of email (mostly work-related!), lots and lots of, um, work, less than two weeks until I fly to Australia, my Christmas cactus is in bloom, an orchid died, and the flowering trees in Cambridge are all abud. (Isn’t “abud” a word? The dotted red line is telling me it isn’t. I’m going to use it anyway.)

Fueled by my outrage, encouraged by friends, and armed with some great suggestions, I’m moving forward with opening a new checking account at a bank that doesn’t suck, and closing my Bank of America account. (I blogged about my banking rage in an earlier post.) Have you heard of community development banks? They’re commercial banks, but they have a mission to generate economic development in low-to-moderate income communities, and serve those communities. Imagine, for a moment, banking with an institution that tries to do some good in the world with the money you lend them and/or the fees you pay. What an idea. It almost makes your head explode, doesn’t it? Thanks to my pals, and especially to D, for getting me on the right track.

Also thanks to CW for linking me to Linda Holmes’ post at NPR’s blog Monkey See: “The Sad, Beautiful Fact That We’re All Going to Miss Almost Everything.” It’s a sad, beautiful, and even joyful look at the impossibility of any of us ever doing all the things we want to do — and especially reading all the books we want to read — in one lifetime. We may as well surrender — and be grateful that the world has such a wealth of art for us to surrender to. The post makes me teary and very happy to be alive.

It also makes me want to get off my laptop and stop rattling around among my own thoughts. Bye, everyone!