Today's plan:

I went to IKEA in the morning, missing the crowds, and got cutting boards and a vegetable peeler; then to Home Depot, where I finally got my very own circular saw. (Yes, handsaws work fine. Yes, I have better things to do than sweat for a half hour trying to get through a piece of oak. Or even ten minutes through a piece of pine.) It works great, well worth forty bucks, and pretty much completes my desire for power tools for the foreseeable future, unless I suddenly have to have a jigsaw (I already have a drill and rotary tool). IKEA's as-is section usually has bunches of bed slats for $3, so I used that to make a wood clamp for my wire shelving so I can clamp a light onto it. It's sort of excessively engineered: while playing with tools I realized that I have a bunch of drill bits I've never used, including wood paddle bits, so I countersunk the bolts for the wood. Unnecessary, but fun!

There was a lovely young lady a Home Depot, who turned out to be the rep for one of the tool companies, but was really helpful answering questions anyway. I imagine she gets tired of being a men's fantasy working in places like Home Depot, but I told her she was pretty anyway.

Thinking a little bit right now about who exactly I am, or what feelings I have that I deem essential to being me, and being more secure about that. Maybe it's not important to share every feeling even with a close friend--just the feelings that, between us, are really important. I don't think that's being dishonest (especially since we already had a conversation about it earlier); and I don't think it dishonors the relationship in any way. It just...is. Either it's no longer the sort of relationship where I say everything that's on my mind, but I don't like that idea of losing that; alternatively, and I like this better, those feelings weren't relevant or useful to bring up, having been settled earlier.

See, thinking this much is precisely why I get up earlier in the morning to keep myself tired. What difference does it make? Why should a conversation have any meaning beyond what is said? The sharing is real, the connection is real. Relationships should be defined by what is, not what isn't.