On the List

The most exciting things I did yesterday and today were, in order, interviewing a homeowner about a home being featured in a magazine story I'm writing, and giving the cat his pills. This is sometimes referred to as "pilling" the cat, which sounds faintly like some British traditional thing, along the lines of the Royal Ascot meeting, with special fancy clothes and people waving at each other across perfectly manicured lawns. It's Pilling Day! Jolly good fun! But actually life is kind of dull, if you must know, and I got thinking that I'm in a position a friend was years ago. She and her husband had a toddler, and while visiting them I accompanied her on a trip into town to get some food at an old-fashioned grocery store. She had the kid on her hip, telling the guy she needed this and that and this and that, in this tone of semipermanent exhaustion that young parents often have. Finally she told him the last item: "and Sesame Street."

The guy looks at her. "I mean sesame oil," she said. The grocery guy keeps looking—he seemed to have a pretty good idea what ailed her—and he looked at the kid, then back at her. Then he pointed at her.

"You," he said, "should get out more."

And so should I. But first this wild and crazy guy's gonna finish his coffee, open a few bills, and shave. Life is short, man, gotta live it to the hilt.