About the graphs I am (not) making

It's 3 p.m. on Monday, MLK day, a federal holiday. I'm at home, sitting at my desk, trying to create a half-dozen regional economic graphics that have been on the back burner because of more pressing data and graphics. Excel is open on one monitor; Word is open on the other monitor.

Excel is obscured by iTunes; Word is obscured by dozen FireFox tabs beckoning with diversions ranging from this blog post to my Etsy wish list (which also conveniently sits in the left column of this page should you desire to admire my ever-evolving kitsch or, better yet, buy me something).

I really, really don't want to make these graphs. Fingernails on chalkboard.

A few months ago, Paul and I decided on a lark to have a psychic reading with this guy, Cash. And he said lots of interesting stuff, so I came home and typed it all up to see how much of it actually came to fruition. This is an old Coast to Coast tradition: Interview "psychics" on New Year's Day about the coming year, then revisit them in December to discuss all the things they incorrectly predicted. Hint: If you predict the end of the world, chances are we won't be around to have this conversation next year.

Anyway, I came home and typed up my notes, which snuggled on my hard drive until a couple of weeks ago when Johanna, Paul and I landed ourselves at Starbucks and read through my file. And whaddyaknow? A lot of Cash's predictions were on the mark, most notably that Paul is teaching at a university in a military town on the coast. Reality creation, indeed.

And most of this is neither here nor there, except it sets up this notation I made in the file: "A guy is coming to live with us for a while, and it's going to be a good thing."

We're going to have a houseguest? Yay! This one had totally slipped my mind in the past few months.

Now, we don't know too many guys to whom houseguest status would apply, but all of their names begin with M and end in some derivation of atthew. There are two of them. Okay, maybe three.

... But anyway, that is how I came about deciding to track down Mattie. At this point in my blog, I would link a specific 2005 Mattie post, but alas, I'm still having permission problems with single-post archives. Eh, you can search the archives if you don't know who I'm talking about. But chances are, if you're reading this, you do.

So Mattie e-mails and says he's bought a bigger torch and is making jewelry, pipes, marbles, etc. (Did you know marbles are kinda hard to make by hand? Truth!) He left Michigan yesterday for the south end of Indiana to pursue an offer installing residential cable lines for some guys he knows. He said he'd e-mail when he got there.

I think, for what it's worth, I could learn a few more things from Mattie about being more free-spirited and less rut-bound. Rut-bound. That's a funny word. Picked it up from some book Johanna bought in the UK.

So all of that is why I'm sitting at my desk waiting for an e-mail that will come, though chances are it won't be here for a few days. I'm listening to oldish Jewel and newish Fall Out Boy. I'm drinking a Vault and thinking about playing some Revenant Wings.

... And I'm not making graphs.