A busy day and some odd thoughts

This is what my dining table looked like at 5 p.m. tonight. I figured if I got all the decorations together in one spot, it would be easier to pack them. Then for some reason between 5 and 6 I got inspired and packaged almost all of them--there are still odds and ends to be dealt with. I also went to the grocery store, did a laundry, sent off an office report to my boss, and started on the tax stuff, rearranging to make room for 2009 financial records. And then of all days, the February Bon Appetit arrived--that always takes at least an hour of my time. And doesn't January 2 seems awfully early for a February issue? It was just a few days ago that I got the January Southern Living--no wonder I can't keep up.
I have a new pet language peeve--people who are "looking to" as in "I'm looking to buy a car." What's wrong with "I want to buy a car." And from the TCU business school on the internet announcements came "Are you looking to have an internship this semester?" Yikes!
Some time ago I read an internet story about a man who had been in a concentration camp as a young man, always starving, untl a girl appeared at the fence one day and handed him an apple. Thereafter she appeared daily with an apple. When he survived and lived in New York, a friend asked him to go on a blind date and, you guessed it, it was the girl with the apple. They married and lived happily ever after. Sue and I discussed it and said, nice a story as it was, it sounded like an urban myth. But, hey, even Oprah was taken in and had the man on her show. The book, The Girl with the Apple, was scheduled for publication by a major publishing house when the author revealed that it was a made-up story. Yes, he had been in a concentration camp, and yes, he had met his wife later on a blind date--but there was no girl with an apple. Why didn't he just write fiction? Or why didn't he write the girl with the apple in as a fantasy during his concentration camp years. His explanation? He wanted to tell a story that would make people happy. I guess now it has a lot of people smirking. Holacaust scholars are worried that it will cast doubt on other holocaust memoirs. Reminds me of what my mom used to quote, "Oh what a tangled we we weave/When first we begin to deceive."
Thanks to Barack Obama for making mothers-in-law okay. He's actually hoping that his will move into the White House with his family, though he says he's too smart to tell his mother-in-law what to do. When I was in Houston, Lisa mentioned to her hairdresser that I was visiting. The hairdresser asked if Colin was taking me around, and Lisa said no, she and I were shopping and doing errands and going to lunch. In a most cynical tone, the hairdresser asked, "So how's THAT going?" Lisa told her great. I am lucky to have a great relationship with all my children-in-law, and I'm glad Obama has that too.
Some words I read today that meant something to me: "It shows wisdom to know what you want in life and then to direct all your energies to getting it." I think that means I should go back to directing all my energies to getting that mystery published.