At 5 a.m. this morning I woke up to something roaring outside my window.

I was desperate for coffee.

It was 5:30 a.m. and I had slept only 2.5 hours. I stood in front of the Delta lounge coffee maker and read the flashing message: “The dairy handling mechanism has not been properly cleaned with XYZ product, and the machine will lock after 4 more attempts.” I flagged an attendant for help, but she didn’t know what to do. So she called over a colleague who glanced at the screen, shrugged, and pushed the reset button.

We treat the dollars in our wallets and the dollars in our heads differently.

We put “real” dollars into just one bucket but do the opposite with our “mental” dollars.

The vase in the window sparked much joy in me.

The hand-drawn penguins were happiness personified, and it was only $60. It made me smile and in my head, it was mine. But I didn’t grab it right away — so many brilliant things to check out and no one else was in the store.

I have a friend who lost $500,000 in this market correction.

That could have bought a Rolls Royce Phantom, a white picket fence house, or 125,000 Big Macs. $500K is very serious money. If not “fuck you money”, at least “damn you money.”

I had all these ideas to write about.

Instead, I did the dishes, roasted Brussels sprouts & zucchini, turned soft blueberries into compote for chia pudding, steamed string beans, snow peas, and snap peas, made a salad and dressing. Now I forget what I wanted to say.