Sometimes I can't think, or rather, I have no interest in thinking, while music clatters away in the background. Prokofiev and those manic piano sonatas. Turning it offf.... Anyway, I was just thinking about my favorite times of the day. What do you look forward to, what things about facing a new day make the prospect appealing? Here are a few of mine. I've always really enjoyed that span of 20 minutes or so in the morning when I eat breakfast while watching the news magazines. I love eating my English muffin slowly (I eat all things slowly, truthfully), washing small bites down with my cup of orange juice, and after that's done, having a bowl of raisin bran to savor. I eat the same things every day, mostly, but I never tire of them. After the raisin bran, it's time to get moving, dressed, etc. But while I'm eating, I'm utterly content. The same is true of my dinner. I come home from the gym, clean up, fix things, mostly by microwaving them, and then sit down in front of the news. For that 30-45 minutes I'm enjoying myself.... always. Those are my top two. The rest of the time I'm plagued with the feeling that I should be doing things. But not during meals. That time is not to be filled with other chores.

Driving to work and back can be nice. A few moments set aside for, well, solo sexual activities. My lunch time at work, where I can surf the web for news and other things, free form activity time. I love to read what's new on Andante.com. Lately I've been enjoying entering data into my database for my CD collection. Why has that become fun? I'm not sure. Of course during the weekend I look forward, above all else, to the few hours on Saturday and Sunday when I sit in a coffee shop and read or study something. Maybe during the week I'll do that in the evening on my day off from the gym. It remains, after a couple of years of doing it, incredibly satisfying. What do all of these have in common? Or do they? I think they all give me contained segments of time in which I'm alone and not subject to feelings that I should be doing something else. I've set aside time that is not subject to outside pressures. Time-boxed, as Xerox people say, though with a slightly different meaning. And speaking of solo sexual activities.... I've got a little time set aside for this current time box, so I should be going. hahah