Shampoo as IQ enhancer.

I woke up early this morning, thanks in no small part to my cat realizing I had woken momentarily and planting herself on my chest, just under my chin, where her whiskers could tickle my face and her purring would reverberate throughout my chest.

Some people - people who don't love cats - might just make her move. But she loves me. And she never stays mad at me when I clean her ears or toss her in a panic onto the tile before she pukes on my carpet. She forgives within seconds, and always wants to be where I am. She greets me when I get home and doesn't tear up my stuff. That kind of love and loyalty must be respected and embraced. So, I told her she was a nut job, and she purred louder, and I got up.

I looked at what I had to do today, and one thing I saw that needed to be done was taking my recycling to the recycling center. My trash company does pick up recycling for an extra fee, but they only pick up a few things, and I pretty much recycle everything I can, so since I'd have to drive to the recycling center anyway every so often, I decided to forego the extra fee, and every few weeks, I load up the car and head downtown - that's where the recycling center is that I use.

I may have blogged about this before, but I'm very limited on the hours I can go to the recycling center. See, there's a lady who works there during their business hours who will approach you EVERY SINGLE TIME you're there unloading your stuff and bug you to donate money to the center. I find this profoundly annoying, so I make an effort to go and drop off my stuff before they open. And every time I do, there are other people doing the same thing. One guy even verified for me one time that his reasoning was the same as mine. Note to lady at recycling center: leave the environmentally responsible customers trying to do a good thing alone.

Anyway, the downside of unloading your recycling early in the morning, at a downtown center, is that you must step around the homeless people using the recycling center as a hotel while you try to properly divide your plastics into the 1 and 2 bins. The fact that there is a homeless center, built at a cost of millions to the taxpayers of Austin, only blocks away is something I never address with them. Because they might stab me. I just always breathe a tad easier when someone else is also there unloading their recycling. This was the case this morning. I got my stuff properly sorted, all the while chanting under my breath to the other man unloading his stuff, "Please don't leave yet. Please don't leave yet."

After successfully and safely doing my civic duty, I headed over to my favorite coffee shop for some java and high-speed Internet. That's where I am now, and it was here that I did one of those stupid things that leaves you wondering, "Good God, as retarded as I clearly am, how do I even tie my own shoes?" You see, I was feeling in high spirits this morning. I like to be up and about in the morning, and as I got out of my car at the coffee shop, I could smell the cool, morning scent that ONLY air in the Texas Hill Country has. I don't mean that other places don't have fresh air or a cool morning dew smell. I just mean that there's a particular scent that the air here has that I've never smelled anywhere else. When I moved back here from Indiana, I drove back and as my car got into the Austin area, the smell came through my windows, and I literally started crying because I knew I was home.

Well, I smelled that smell, and it made me so happy - happy to be alive and be home and be healthy and awake with two whole days where my time is my own - I decided to buy myself special fru-fru coffee to celebrate. By the door, there was a poster advertising Butter Brickle Blonde coffee, with "sweet toffee and almond making this rich mocha melt in your mouth." It showed it with whipped cream on top and bits of toffee on top, with strips of chocolate and caramel. And I thought, "Yes, that's exactly it." So, I bought it.

The clerk was pleasant and all was well. He brought it to me at my table, I took a big sip, and it was then, and only then, that I realized, "I hate almond." What kind of a moron doesn't remember that she doesn't like almond? And it's not like this is the first time I've done this. I have done it several times - not this week or anything, but over the years. I periodically buy some dessert or drink, etc. that has almond, and it sounds good (because I like the actual almond nut, just not almond flavoring), and I take one bite/sip and think, "Blech!" I just paid almost $4 for a drink I don't like, and if I weren't brain damaged, I would've known I wouldn't like it because it advertised the flavor I don't like right there on the poster.

Considering what I paid, I'm forcing it down. But let's hope that's the only stupid thing I do today. It's probably because I didn't shower before leaving the house. That probably cleans your brain as well as your hair.