It is by no means easy to enjoy the beauties of American scenery.

     --Frances Trollope, Domestic Manners of the Americans, 1832

drinking coffee paying bills baking banana bread choosing poems washing clothes feeding pets watering plants mowing grass going to band practice packing for New York trying on dresses to see if they make me look fat making macaroni salad reading novels eating popsicles driving to high school admonishing one son about grades telephoning other son in Paris writing list of chores for husband choosing poems reading novels complaining about Red Sox trying not to forget tickets choosing poems reading novels reading novels reading novels hunting down Dramamine for the bus trip eating cherries listening to robins sing refilling hummingbird feeder letting cat in letting cat out letting dog in tripping over dog weeding lettuce making clever remarks about cats dogs art and popular music with husband not necessarily in this order running down forest trails but not tripping on a root and bashing up my knee again splashing my face with cold water

So home and late at the office, and then home, . . . and we sat chatting a great while, talking of witches and spirits.

     --Samuel Pepys, diary, August 21, 1666