Here’s What Happened

NOON SATURDAY: Is there anything wrong with a retiree eating ice cream at 3:15 in the morning?

After three restless nights and a twenty-four-hour headache, I got out of bed when most of you were sleeping and reached for the FitRx gun to massage my neck and shoulders. When I turned it off, I felt an urgent need for the remaining Brownie Moose Tracks I knew was in the freezer. Now it’s gone, although, unfortunately, the headache is back.

5 P.M. SUNDAY: It’s raining and thundering outside, with weather reports calling for a wind advisory and a possible tornado.

Inside, I’m dry and relaxed and feeling grateful because when I got home from church, I made a sandwich, grabbed an apple and a bottle of water, and ate lunch in 75 degrees of sun. Then I called my daughter, and we spoke for two hours about this, that, and everything else. Sundays can’t get much sweeter.

3:30 P.M. MONDAY: By my reckoning, The Reckoning is my thirtieth John Grisham adult novel.

I’ve been eagerly pecking away at his fiction for years, and with six chapters left in this mystery drama, I welcome a break to brag about this storyteller again. In the chapter “Mid-June Jamboree” from my upcoming book*, I mention Grisham’s The Racketeer and the Tillamook Mudslide ice cream break I took before latching on to that legal thriller again. Clearly, my cravings for southern suspense and frosty desserts have not waned.

*Variegated Views: Seasonal Moments of Joy and Sparkle

11 A.M. TUESDAY: Not much happening today.

I’ll choose a new fiction and dive into another chapter of The Body: A Guide for Occupants. Bill Bryson gives a layperson’s tour of the human body, adding interesting tales and doses of humor. The last chapter, “Down the Hatch,” was about the mouth and throat; today I’ll learn about the heart and blood.

8:15 P.M. WEDNESDAY: No treats tonight because I’m wearing ashes on my forehead and eating light and lean.

But last night, as Fat Tuesday drew to a close, I indulged in Chocolate Cherry Passion and had an epiphany. I’ve read thirty of Grisham’s fifty best sellers, and on three of the last five days, I scribbled about eating ice cream. I’m loving the ratios!

“‘Well,’ said Pooh, ‘what I like best,’ and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called.” — A.A. Milne

Wishing all of you scoops of anticipation,

Annmarie