The lilies of the valley have arrived for the year. These are, hands down, my favorite flower. They are delicately perfect in every way and I am completely smitten. When I lived in North Carolina, Debbie once picked a bouquet from her garden and sent them to me...I was tickled. Last night, as she presented me with the above, I smiled deeply at such a kind gesture. Debbie pays acute attention to her loved ones' pleasures, and surprises them often with "just thinking about you" charm. Thank you, Debbie. I bundled them with a rough twine to contrast with their fragile build and plan to stare at them all day at work. Truly, this is the best part of Spring.

Tonight is golf lesson #2. Being the nerd that I am, I left last week's lesson muttering, "I think I'm going to buy a book." Because, paying for lessons isn't enough of a financial drain for me to feel good about my golf-game-honing ventures. And, being the shopper that she is, Brenda ordered Golfing for Dummies last weekend. See, it's teamwork. I mention something I want, and Brenda buys it. I've managed to coordinate this plan of attack with many an acquaintance over the years, and it seems to work smoothly enough.

I feel really good today, the best I've felt in a long while, but last night was terrible. My stomach was hurting this way and that, and as I massaged my cramping midsection, I watched Brenda practice on the training putting green she ordered with the book, and I had to laugh. She shook her head and joined. "I'm not sure if this will work in our house," she advised, looking to the length of green and the three cats whose curiosities were there applied.

I took a bath and relaxed deeply in the fragrant water with a banana mask. I leafed through my new SHAPE magazine...which I just renewed for two years at a 75%+ savings off of the cover price...Nick's soon-to-be-former roommate received her copy of the magazine on Friday...I didn't receive mine until Monday. I typically leave my laptop at Nick's these days and do my "home surfing" from Brenda's spiffy new Dell. Yesterday, I chatted briefly with Nick and he reported that my Gmail notifier was showing I had new mail before the notifier from Brenda's computer did. I huffed, "Dang it! SHAPE arrives faster to Waunakee...email is delivered faster to Waunakee....WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING IN DEFOREST!?" Nick, who was wryly killing time until his volleyball game, and direly wishing for an electrical storm to cancel the match, confirmed that this was a very good question...I missed you too last evening, Nick.

I'm hoping to meet up with Sarah on Thursday. We seem to have trouble scheduling time. We're (hopefully, if we can get our procrastinating butts in gear...I don't know how many nights we skipped studying in college in favor of girl talk and just plain silliness) taking tennis lessons together later this summer. I possess little to no athletic skill, you see, a situation I would very much like to rectify. I was not an active youngster, and came into my physical prowess after the ripe old age of twenty. I have much ground to make up. Sarah has stomach issues too (I'm sure she loves that I announce that to the world...or the lauralore.com audience...yep, all 3 of you) and there is a sort of bond between people whose bodies have an unparalleled hatred for, you know...food.

Lastly, in this disconnected babble of a post, I bought a flat iron for my hair last night. My stylist said that it would make my hair shiny...and straight. Though I had my doubts, I have to say I'm impressed with this easy process and I actually got my hair to look like the salon got it to look the other night. I have a head of hair that sits on the fence in the curly/straight debate. The grass is always greener, they say...indeed, as a young girl with hair so thick I used to loose bobby pins only to find them weeks later, I was envious of the girls with flat hair. I say to you now, as a stockholder in volumizing shampoo lines who spends hours a night praying to the Vidal Sassoon Gods to let me lose not a strand more of my locks, thick hair really isn't so very bad.