Toxic Fumes Wage War in Minneapolis Home

Shad and Co. have been screenprinting in the basement and the house is now filled with toxic fumes. As I entered my home this evening, I realized that a full-blown battle was raging between the vaguely citrus-y chemical fumes rising from the basement and a mysterious rotten odor likely emanating from the refrigerator. With the screenprinting fumes clearly in the lead, I walked into the kitchen to fix dinner and was suddenly overpowered by the rotten food, which, thanks to some investigative work by Yours Truly, was finally traced to some chopped cilantro on the second shelf that was promptly thrown into a bag and sent out to the dumpster with spouse (who was later invited to return). Windows were thrown open, a pot of coffee thrown on. That the smell of fresh brewed coffee could beat out the chemicals was obviously a pipe dream. Perhaps I'll roast some garlic? My light-headedness does not make me bitter about the toxic episode, even though Shad and Co. have fled the premises for the evening and have left me alone with my pot of coffee. I love being surrounded by creativity and I find it life-giving (if cancer-causing) when things are being made in my home. Hoooray for chemicals!

I like eye contact. I realize that some people look at mouths, and I can see the benefit in that (the slight twitch in the corner of the mouth can help you anticipate a person's next words, for example), but I still find it kind of asocial not to look someone in the eyes when you are talking to them. Anyway. I had a three hour meeting today with a man who had the most intense eye contact I have ever experienced. Very sincere man. Very. Sincere. Well, no way was I going to back down. So I met and sustained the eye contact. It would have been an intense experience if our meeting was one hour, but it was THREE HOURS. It left me feeling kind of weird. Not creepy weird--I don't believe I was a special recipient of the eye contact, I think it is just his manner--but I felt like I had engaged in some kind of extreme sport, and I was slightly invigorated afterwards like it was a neat game I wanted to play again.