Scorecard

Two immediate discoveries when I arrived at work today:

1. Dead mouse in the spiny mouse cage—and not only merely dead, but really most sincerely dead. (Like, chewed on.)
2. The Isaac Mizrahi "Vote" t-shirt I ordered from Declare Yourself had arrived over the weekend, and the package was at my desk.

I think they balance each other out. Ooohhhh, I can't wait to wear the t-shirt. (And just over two weeks till I get to vote; and, hopefully, till the election is actually over. Please let it not drag out till December this time...)



Annotations:

1. The mouse had had a big slice at the back of its neck on Friday; it didn't look like it had been inflicted by other mice—it was a clean cut, not toothmarks—and small animals can heal remarkably well (I've had other mice with similarly-deep cuts who recovered just fine), so I figured I'd leave it in the cage over the weekend, and if it looked on Monday like the other mice had been picking on it, I'd take it home and put it in a separate cage. Well, I guess they picked on it—after it was dead, if not before—so, um, misjudgment on my part there. I feel moderately guilty, but don't think I made an inappropriate decision based on the information I had at the time and the past information I'd accumulated. (Could be worse. One morning a few months ago I came in and was greeted with "Abby, there's a dead mouse in there." Pause. "Actually, it's more like half a dead mouse." Ew. [It is, of course, somehow solely my responsibility to deal with the mice after they're dead. I'm afraid the funeral arrangements are pretty minimal: plastic bag and the trash can of the convenience store across the street {the office trash pickup isn't till Friday, which is a long time to leave a dead mouse in an indoor trash can}.])
2. I ordered the t-shirt on October 11th—last Monday—so it arrived in exactly a week. The Mizrahi shirts had been sold out in September, when I originally tried to order one, and now that they're back in stock, they still say "Allow two weeks for delivery in the USPS system," and you can only choose U.S. mail for shipping; so I was worried that it wouldn't arrive in time for the election. But, obviously, it did; so if you want one, there's still time to order it and have it in time to wear on Election Day.