yup, still thinking about elephants

For my most recent birthday, my copywritin' colleague Jill gave me a subscription to National Geographic. And this continues to make me so very, very happy.

I have been big on magazines in the last year or so. I have become very big on mail in the last year or so, especially because after a long day it's nice to come home to find a Bon Appetit tucked alongside the usual rejection letters and Internet-service statements even though you have enrolled in e-billing like ten times. And isn't it just nice to get magazines? They're like little presents for surviving another month. Good job with that September, they say. Consider making yourself a very elaborate cake that involves macerated raisins and expensive chocolate.

Anyhoo. Thanks to Jill I get NG, and I have taken to reading it on the bus as I shuttle back and forth from my office to downtown. There's something nice about sitting on a warm bus and reading about elephants after a day of prep work. I feel almost like ... a grown-up. Until I spill coffee all over my cardigan. But hey! I have a cardigan. Four, actually.

So here's my gift to you on this gray rainy Tuesday, a day that is finding me feeling much improved: a coy elephant from this set of photos. He's so cute, I give him to you twice:



Ha! Look at how cute he is! Look at his chin hair! He looks like he should be named Mortimer. He looks sort of like he's smiling and trying not to throw up all at the same time. Which, come to think of it, is sort of how I feel most days this semester. But in the best possible way.