1. Medium-sized avocados are two for a buck at Fred Meyer right now. Usually, they’re 69 cents each. I had no idea. Ever since we started the food budget, we’d been mostly going without our beloved avocados because the large ones are $2.99 EACH at New Seasons, where we do our shopping. Why the huge difference? New Seasons only carries organic avocados, and only the large size. The avocados at Fred Meyer aren’t organic (and are the smaller ones). WAY cheaper. And we figure if you’re going to skip the organic for any produce, do it with something that has a tough, non-edible skin. We are back in avocados, people. This is life-changing news. Or maybe it just feels that way because I just ate that avocado on a rather fantastic sandwich, and nothing makes a pregnant woman (this pregnant woman, anyway) happier than a really, really good sandwich.

2. Said sandwich was bargain avocado, tomato from the garden, the last slice of Swiss leftover from our ill-planned lunch debacle on Sunday, and a healthy smear of mayo on challah I baked this morning.

3. Yes, I baked challah on a Tuesday. I wanted challah. Yes, it felt weird. Yes, if there are ghosts my Jewish grandmother will rise up to give me indigestion. I don’t care. It was worth it. (And it’d be kind of nice to see her, anyway.)

4. I’m reading Already Dead by Denis Johnson right now. I already thought he was a genius. Now it’s pretty much confirmed. For those who think you don’t like his work, please remember that it’s not his fault that 44% of all first-year MFA fiction students are trying to write like him. (With another 52%, mostly female, trying to write like Lorrie Moore, of course. And it’s not her fault, either.) That leaves 4% who right off the bat are trying to write like themselves. I’d like to flatter myself by saying I was in that 4%, but truth be told I was most likely trying to write like Borges filtered through a used cheesecloth screen with bits of Johnson and Moore stuck to it.

5. Now I write like myself. Really. How do I know? It hurts a lot more and it’s harder to show to others.

6. I want another sandwich. There’s plenty of bread, more tomatoes, another avocado. No more Swiss, though. Will it be the same without the Swiss? I’m hungry. Gonna go for it.

7. I wish I had some of those Terra chips.

8. I don’t eat chips. That’s the fetus talking. The fetus makes me eat and enjoy things I don’t like, like chips and orange juice. But I’m a stingy mean mama, and no first-timer, so I only gave it chips once.

9. Okay. Twice.

10. So far.