Three beautiful things from the last week:

1. I eat lunch outdoors whenever I can, but I worked from home today, so my scenery and lunch options were different. I opted for my closest outdoor eatery, Teaism, where I feasted on a mango lassi and a sandwich of portobello mushrooms, pecans, and goat cheese. Sparrows cheeped at me as I read Linda Ellerbee’s latest travel and food memoir and swayed to the tunes on the iPod from my sunny wooden bench.

2. I did something truly dumb Sunday night when we got home. After parking the car where we wouldn’t have to move it for a few days, I decided to clean up some of the junk in the back seat. This took about ten minutes and then I locked the car up and headed home. Didn’t look back. Didn’t see I’d left the dome light on. No one saw. Until two nights later when Rudi passed it en route to the grocery store. Oops. Since we had to move the car by this morning at 7 a.m., I dropped our friend Phillip, who owns a car, an email yesterday morning, asking if he’d mind giving me a jump (using the jumper cables my parents gave me as a Christmas gift one year). No problem, he said, and he arrived yesterday afternoon, with good grace, a sense of humor, and a running engine. Rudi, I, and our re-running car are grateful.

3. As I walked home from Teaism this afternoon, the smell of hyacinths washed over me. I love the smell of hyacinths. Their heady scent always makes me happy. And I am now that spring truly has arrived.

The good news of my weekend plans falling through is that I do not need to finish cleaning my apartment right now.

And we don’t need to finesse tonight’s concert plans.

And Jeremiah will not feel terrorized by having his turf invaded. (I originally wrote that as “turk.” I was unaware my cat was collecting immigrants. I wonder if INS knows…)

The bad news is, of course, that I will not have the delightful company of my intended guest. Sadness.

But we will see her in a few weeks when we’re home at Easter. And I’ve extended her an invitation to come see an obscure Shakespeare play performed in the woods. She is, of course, welcome to come down for the Fourth of July, the fourth of September, or tomorrow — nuestra casa es su casa.

So any suggestions for how I should spend my weekend now?