Thursday

I arrived at the office today to discover a small wooden skull and a stuffed crow sitting atop my computer keyboard. As you might well imagine, this is not a normal turn of events for a Thursday morning. Had I not been almost entirely sure about who had done this — “you know it’s one of two people,” my boss laughed when she saw it — I might have taken it as some kind of ominous portent. That and the black spot left on an index card on my desk a few hours later. But it was all just a bunch of silliness. That’s just the sort of coworkers that I have. Need I remind you of the Dalek incident?

Alas, I only thought to take pictures once I’d returned the toys to their proper owner.

The rest of the day was pretty much normal. Sometime after lunch, I went looking for a training session that I thought was happening, because I had it on my calendar, but which actually happening for another three weeks.

And that’s about as exciting as the whole week’s been. Were it not for the deadly portents, having lost one of the earbuds from my headphones (and then realizing it didn’t make as much difference as I would have thought) would be the most exciting thing that’s happened since Monday.

So, in lieu of anything else, and apropos of nothing but it being (amazingly, finally) August, here’s my monthly music mix, that thing that I do for no particular reason but that I enjoy it, and like music, every month. Last month, I only had five songs. So this month I may have over-compensated. I have twenty-seven. This, quite honestly, is going to make pulling together a year-end mix a little more difficult:

  1. “Desperate Heart” by Gram Rabbit
  2. “Hit or Miss” by Odetta
  3. “These Ozark Hills” by Blackberry Winter
  4. “It Came Out of the Wilderness” by Pete Molinari
  5. “Closer” by Tegan and Sara
  6. “Entertainment” by Phoenix
  7. “Can You Get to That” by Mavis Staples
  8. “Shameless” by Lissie
  9. “Royals” by Lorde
  10. “Beautiful Tomorrow” by Beth Rowley
  11. “Be Good (Lion’s Song)” by Gregory Porter
  12. “Lose Your Head” by Dead Man’s Bones
  13. “In My Head” by Olivier Libaux (feat. Susan Dillane)
  14. “Only You” by Yaz
  15. “Questions and Answers” by Lou Doilion
  16. “Bones” by MS MR
  17. “Never Wanted Your Love” by She & Him
  18. “Mary” by Sparkadia
  19. “Back Then” by B. Story
  20. “Saint Judas” by Natalie Merchant
  21. “Hysteric” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
  22. “Lucky” by Kat Edmondson
  23. “Dirty Paws” by Of Monsters and Men
  24. “I Still Believe” by the Call
  25. “Strong as an Oak” by Watsky
  26. “Gloria” by Patti Smith
  27. “Walking Song” by Kate and Anna McGarrigle

So that was Thursday.