Thoughts on a Wednesday

• I realized recently one of the reasons I love reading so much is because books often contain the names, thoughts and authors of other books. And since I have an account with the public library I can order some of  those books and enjoy them as well as the one I was initially reading. Awesome.

• I love the public library.

• Two weeks ago I went and volunteered with Minnesotans United For All Families  making phone calls to voters to discuss the upcoming gay marriage amendment on the ballot. I sat at my laptop while the computer program brought up random names and numbers of registered voters. I couldn't believe my eyes when one of the names that popped up belonged to a guy I had gone on a first date with.

"You have got to be kidding me" I said. I marked him as not home.

Last time I went to vote I saw a guy I had gone on a first date with and I had to awkwardly not make eye contact with him as we snaked our way through the voting line. That happened to me twice at the dog park too.

This city is too small and I have been on way too many first dates.

• Dating is a great way to see new restaurants in your city, though it does not really lead to fond memories of any of them.

• I've been working hard on my listening skills lately. I've realized in my adult years I interrupt too much, get too eager and allow for interruptions too often. Since my biggest pet peeve in the world is being interrupted myself, it's really only fair I give that in return (duh Addie!). I'm really working on staying present in all conversations. This does not come naturally to me since my mind is always racing to the next thing, but it's important.

• I love the season of autumn more than I can say. I'm so happy it's coming this weekend.

• I recently discovered the edible education class that Michael Pollan is teaching at Berkeley and that you can watch every lecture online. I love them and highly recommend them. An amazing college course sans the money and homework, what more could you ask for?

• This Onion article made me laugh outloud.

• This quote has been sitting next to my desk all week.

"HE WHO GIVES WITH PURITY GETS PURITY IN RETURN

HE WHO GIVES WITH PASSION GETS PASSION IN RETURN

HE WHO GIVES WITH IGNORANCE GETS IGNORANCE IN RETURN"

- Indian Upanisahds