"Ball..."

I'm feeling tense. There's a churning in my stomach, a restlessness in my bones. And my mind is alternately single-minded and scattered. Why? because we bought three avocados in the last few days, they've been trying to ripen for guacamole. I finally decided they were ripe enough, and I gathered all my stuff. But I could only find two avocados! I REALLY wanted three.

I know what happened. "Somebody" (he's about 15 months old) thought the avocado was a "ball" and played "Put It in the Cabinet" or "Put It in the Drawer" or "Throw It over There." No one was watching him that particular moment, and now somewhere in our house an avocado is rotting.

I know: one out of three avocados shouldn't have that much power in my life. For your information, I don't really think it was the avocados. I think it was Moby's CD "Play" (actually it's the two-CD set). Before I started looking for the avocado, I started looking for the CD. It was an all-day search (suddenly coins, sheep and lost boys come to mind, but especially the coins. See Luke 15). I was actually looking for Moby for a work project. No, really. Since I have CDs both at work and home, I looked all day both places. Whenever I didn't have to think about something else my mind was working on where Moby could be.

I asked all four of our kids--those who live with us and those who don't. They all let me know either by words or tone that they're not that crazy about Moby anyway. Not the point.

And, again, one CD out of... well... a lot ought not to churn me up like this. Chalk it up to anthropologically residual fight or flight response or something like that, but it just IRKS me that I can't find this CD! (Did I mention that it's the two-CD set?)

Maybe it's in that black bag I've carried back and forth from work. Maybe it's in that box, or that one, or that one, or the closet I've already looked in four times. Finally I told Laura, if it's not in that black bag (wherever THAT is), I give up. I'll have to save my pennies and order another one. I found the black bag. It's not there. I give up. The churning lessens.

I shift gears and start cleaning up my ongoing mess in the computer room. Too much stuff, I know. Cleaning up a little clutter might de-clutter my mind. Just empty this box and I can get rid of it. There, it's emptied. And what's this behind it? Oh Moby!

Now how did it get there?! Oh, yeah, "Somebody"! Now if we could only find that rotting avocado.