I feel like this post should begin with a stretch and a yawn – as if I’ve crawled out of bed, oblivious to the fact that its noon and the world has been going on without me. So here I am, stretching and yawning before you. I had a great snooze. I’m sure you’ve all been very productive in the meantime.

As all mornings go, it’s time for me to face the day. And today I am facing books.

Lots of them.

It’s been a strange couple of weeks for me, personally. Though I’d be hard-pressed to give you a good explanation as to why. I think I’m suffering from what I like to call a “general malaise,” wherein my brain, sinking in emotional quick sand, has a hard time figuring out what to do with itself. This kind of a funk is hard to get out of. In an act of desperation I put 15 books on my Hold List at the Library. If hot chocolate and dog snuggles can’t do the trick, I know I can always depend on the Portland Library. More so than other Libraries, the Portland Library has special healing qualities. I attribute this to the perfectly pink walls, the tremendously high ceilings, and the turquoise, rose patterned carpet. All together, it is a breathtaking salvation for the floundering mind. Mine certainly came out much improved.

The really exciting part of this adventure, however, was my success at coming out with books that dealt in only ONE specific subject. Libraries tend to make my brain a bit tangential.  But this time, as you can see, I stuck to the mission, and the mission was: Pattern.

Its a hard thing to admit that you can really only learn one new skill at a time. All the same, for me at least, I feel a sense of satisfaction knowing I am not only allowed, but required to ignore most everything else in order to master something new. I like having permission to be single-minded. It happens so rarely these days.

My plan for the next few weeks is to pretend that I am a Surface Designer. I am going to learn how its done and then I am just going to do it. If you can recall your first grade years, you may remember a game where all the kids got to play a different role in society – grocery clerk, police man, librarian, etc. It involved dressing up and being wholly dedicated to the job at hand, which sometimes meant you got to boss around your classmates, or if you were lucky enough to be the grocery clerk or the librarian, it meant stamping books and scanning barcodes. A positively thrilling job.

My very first job.

This is kind of like a grown up version of that. Though I seem to recall that it works better if costumes are involved. In any case, if designing patterns is even remotely as exciting as scanning plastic bananas, I’m in good shape.