Boring

These days I come home and do a crossword puzzle every night. It's important that I finish today's puzzle because tomorrow's answers are always just around the corner. It gives me great satisfaction each morning to pick up the paper and peruse my last night's predicaments. Mostly I get it right, proud of my ability to tease out the rara avis that can be tonight's only right answer. But I'm more astounded by the rows and columns I've made fit in the wrong way. It's amazing that I've picked out the exact number of letters to form words that fit with other words, creating a whole block of right answers to the wrong questions. Isn't that always the way?

Most nights I watch Jeopardy. I don't form my answers in the form of a question and I don't use a buzzer. This makes me faster than the other players, smug when I get it right, dismissive of the very question when I get it wrong. Who would know that? Not me. Not anyone.

I turn off Wheel of Fortune now. They just put the answer out there, uncovering it one letter at a time. There is no challenge in slowly revealing one trite phrase after another. It's a waste of time and makes me die a slower death. It is an insult to the very concept of the wheel of fortune.

Then I usually cook a little dinner. Depending on how committed I am to bettering myself, I will either pair something high in protein with a leafy green vegetable or a bottle of wine with a take out menu.

In the mood for betting, I'll check out the neighborhood poker game. I haven't taken the whole pot just yet, but I play even-handed, waiting for my moment, winning over the sweet local boys with my smile and my new earrings and lip gloss. I rarely bluff. It's just not in the cards right now.

Occasionally I'll make something clean, or whet someone's palette. Once in a while I'll take out the garbage. To make room for more, of course.

All this is to say that things are still for me right now. But that's to be expected. One must hold the thing still to bore a hole in it. I am ready to be boring my way through tonight's puzzle to tomorrow's answer, today's seed to tomorrow's root, from today's tonight to tomorrow's morning.

I salute all of us being still and boring our holes.