I love coming home to good mail. Blair’s still-sparkly-eyed 96 year old grandma has a mail system that I’ve adopted: handle each piece only once if possible. Since I’ve gotten serious about it, a lovely paperless-ness has settled over our kitchen. Yesterday was a very good mail day – I came home to a big brown Chapters Indigo box. I’ve tried to cut back on buying books and now the arrival of a new book usually sets into motion the following sequence of events: 1. boil water for french press 2. find something, anything, for the kids to do 3. scavenge the pantry for something, anything, sweet to go with aforementioned coffee 4. find the perfect reading blanket that Roslyn made for us a few Christmases ago. 5. tear open that box. Unfortunately, I had to forgo 1-4 yesterday and now “Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys To Creativity” sits plaintively on the kitchen shelf, just waiting to be part of the coffee/cookie/blanket extravaganza. I bought it largely because of one quote out of it that I came across (key #14): “Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside”. We had friends over for dinner a couple of weeks ago – Stephanie is a marathon runner, a witty writer, a dedicated and loving mama and also happens to be gorgeous. Definite fodder for an insecurity complex to one comparing insides to outsides. After dinner I opened the cupboard to make coffee and Steph gasped, “Are your coffee canisters LABELED? You seem so relaxed on the outside but then you open your cupboards and everything is LABELED”. When things in life overwhelm me, I label. The more scattered I feel, the more militarily my linen closet is organized. It’s just how I deal with stress. Inside…Outside. Well, labeling and chocolate. Maybe I should ask Steph if she’d like a running partner.