Sometimes, when there’s too much to do and not enough time to do it, the brain goes to interesting places. I think it’s the body’s way of keeping you sane, preventing total meltdown. I don’t mean this in an emotional way. For instance, today at work, it felt like just when we got a second to catch our breath, another group of people were coming in, another load of dishes needed to be washed, another pot of coffee brewed, another spill to clean, another jug of milk to fill… I mean, it was one of those days when I looked, and it was 2:40 and I hadn’t taken my 15 minute break and I left at 3pm so there it went. That’s the type of madness I’m talking about.

Oddly enough, you start to think about strange things. Things completely unrelated to anything, really, just your brain processing information around habitual actions. Steam milk- what would be my first reaction if I opened my eyes and couldn’t see anything? Brew coffee-  how much caffeine is necessary to actually put someone into shock? Make sandwich- can a decision in the present change the future if a person goes back in time to first change the past? *blinks* That one is related to a story and it still makes my head spin a little bit.

Anyway, Lisa (*waves!!!*), one of my awesome co-workers and a total sweetie, managed to bring us Cafe peeps a little ‘trivia of the day’ I suppose you could call it. The question was: if you could create an animal to live on the earth, what would it be?

Now at first, I thought she meant, like an all new species. But what she really meant, was an animal that could interact with human society, ie. a gossip squirrel and ninja mouse. I totally love the squirrel concept, mostly because I can totally see it knocking on the window first thing in the morning, with a little nut in its hands, going: You won’t believe what I just heard…

So of course, Deni, my cafe compadre, and I, had to put in our two cents. Here were our creations.

Scenario 1:

Smart dolphins who wear bowties and reading glasses and are transported through portable water tubs. Imagine this- I’m in the editing office. He’s sitting across from me, in his little tub full of water. He’s got the reading glasses perched on his nose.

Well, Miss Santiago, he says, I think this is impressive work. Unfortunately, your use of adverbs is excessive. Careful with speaking in passive voice. He shifts. Water splashes onto the floor. He looks down. The glasses slide down his bottlenose. I sit, uncomfortable in my seat. Uh… I say. Let me get those for you. I slide them  back up his nose. I’m obliged.

Is that the first sign of serious cabin fever? Not only imagining crazy, new animals, but also setting up real life scenarios for them? Might be.

Scenario 2:

 my favorite singing octopus

Octopus’ (octopuses?), classically trained to sing opera in several languages (including latin, italian, and french). Because they’re considered relatively large creatures, they would totally further the plus size movement for women and encourage chubby little girls (yea, you know I’m going back to my own childhood here) to follow their dreams.

We are so sick.

On the plus side, I ironed out a few issues in my futuristic W.I.P. The chapter was stagnant because I had no main goal. I’ve got a better idea where I’m headed. So hopefully I’ll kick out something awesome. I already started it and I’m excited about the direction it’s headed. It’s definitely much more in the moment.

Happy Monday!