It has been a thunderstormy kind of day. We’ve had two big ones pass through, much to my delight. In my book, there are few things better than a mid-summer thunderstorm; they often make me dig deep and think about my life. But I’ve been doing a lot of that lately, perhaps too much. So I enjoyed the storms, watched the clouds clip by as the rain fell, and tried not to think so much.

Unfortunately, this lack of thinking made it a bit difficult to come up with a blog topic. I almost called it Tuesday Snooze-day and took a break, but there’s a niggling part of me that won’t let me give it a rest, even if I forced a blog out of me. After all, columnists all over the world have deadlines to meet whether they like it or not. The great Erma Bombeck and Lewis Grizzard had editors breathing down their necks until they produced something, anything…at least I only have guilt and self-loathing for not coming up with something clever.

Cupcake in my wine glass. I lost all my respectable glasses in the divorce. Birthday hint.

In an effort to salvage the day, I took a little trip to the grocery store to pick up a bottle of wine. I planned to drink a couple of glasses (two max, because I’m a lightweight) and see if that did anything to fire the synapses. Surely Erma had her own drink of choice to speed things along, even if it was tea…and we all know that Lewis had his favorite beer. This just made me one of the in-crowd. However, just in case the wine sucked, I also swung by Dunkin’ Donuts to grab an iced coffee—decaf this time; my twitterfeed exploded the last time I drank fully-leaded so close to bedtime.

Now, admittedly, I know very little about wine. I normally leave that business to Sam, who always seems to pick out the best reds. I tried my best to follow his lead in the Kroger aisles, but out of the chilled wine case jumped a wine that called my name like a mythical siren. Cupcake. A white wine with hints of buttercream, vanilla, and citrus. Wow! How can you go wrong with that? I ignored all of Sam’s warnings about whites and took my bottle to the checkout, certain I’d found something so delicious that I could proudly show it off to my wine aficionado friend.

When I got home, I changed into my favorite tee that I had pilfered from my ex-boyfriend’s wardrobe and sat down to write. (Aforementioned ex-bf is also one of my dearest friends, so don’t mistake me for one of those crazy girls who is hung up on the past. I’ve passed through that phase, tyvm.) All warm and cozy, I pulled out my trusty MBP (I really should come up with a nickname for my computer. My car is named Jake…I’m open to suggestions for my Mac. And please don’t suggest “Mac.”) and sat with my wine cup in hand, staring at the blank screen. Hmm…maybe a sip would help. Um, let’s just say I am so glad that Sam got me an iSkin for my keyboard last year because I almost sprayed it all over my screen.

Whoever writes those wine labels should get awards for propaganda. Where was my buttercream? My vanilla cupcake? This tasted like llama sweat. Sigh. Thank God I had the foresight to buy my decaf with cream and two Splendas.

As I finish this post, another storm has started. The rain patters down and the thunder booms in the distance, bringing peace to my heart and a calm to my often over-active brain. Perhaps that’s what I needed most today, just an afternoon to remind me that I don’t always have to be thinking about the next big topic to write about. After all, as my friend Steph reminded me last night, “there’s an ebb and a flow. Don’t hate the ebb, it creates the flow.”

I love you all, some more than others.