"Some Feel The Heat And Some Sweat When The Heat Is On"

I was in my bathroom at 6:45 a.m. this morning, fresh out of the shower. I had the space heater going and it was aimed directly at my bare legs. I was wearing two towels, one swami style on my head and the other wrapped around my torso. We keep it at about 65 degrees in our house and wear layers to ward off the chill, lest we be driven to the poor house by Dominion Gas. I had just squeezed a dollop of Oil of Olay onto my fingers when my cell phone rang. It could only be Big Orange and even for him, it was early.

As my fingers were covered with lotion, I decided to let him speak to my voice mail. I continued my morning ablutions at record speed; I had hit the snooze for nearly an hour and I need to be in my car by 7:00 a.m. if I were to arrive at work with any semblance of punctuality. I spread the lotion over my face, towel dried my hair, added mousse, turned of the space heater, dried and styled my hair with the hair dryer, applied deodorant and got dressed. I kissed Doc goodbye and wished him a happy birthday (read about his transition to middle age here, it's great) and was on the road by 7:05 a.m.

Once I had settled myself in for my hour-long commute, I picked up the phone and retrieved my voicemail. I was greeted by a taunting madman. He was rubbing it in that he had already posted his first blogcake in what threatens to be a very long month of blogging, and that he had several more in the queue, locked and loaded. He noted that he had checked my blog and noticed that I hadn't yet posted. That seemed to give him enormous pleasure.

I called him back and he gloated some more. Then we bitched about politics and education. He has a big day at work today and was about to pick up his breakfast, so we wished each other well and returned to our respective commutes.

The whole way in, I was trying to remember an idea for a post that had occured to my last night. Sadly, it was as elusive as Osama Bin Ladin. I was unable to put my finger on it.

I made my way up to my desk and logged in. And what story does Yahoo! decide I need to see first thing? An article called "The Best Entrepreneurs Under 25". Under 25?!? Jesus!

So, not only have I been bested at blogging by a neurotic fifth grade science teacher with hypographia (well played, old bean!), I'm also being lapped by the next generation vis a vis sucess. Sigh. It's a lot to swallow first thing in the morning, to be sure.

However, I am not bummed out. I am inspired. I plan on giving my all this month and really taking my writing to a higher level of quality in the areas of humor, thoughfulness, grammar, relevancy and style.

Be ye warned: It's getting hot in here...