As you’ll see evidenced below, I’m apparently in the mood to photograph trees. There were lots of other things I could’ve “shot” today (during a day trip to Princeton, NJ with my friends Theresa and Sara) but I liked these trees. And, honestly, we were having a splendid time and it didn’t occur to me to get the camera out and interrupt the flow. And Mihály Csíkszentmihályi will tell you how important flow is.

But really, the sky this morning was amazing and it set off the greenish-yellow of this tree to stunning effect, I think. The image hasn’t been altered in any way, other than sized down to fit this column.

Then there was this tree in a courtyard across from Princeton University itself. I liked the thickness and rope-yness of the center.

We stopped at Princeton Record Exchange and I bought a bunch of used CDs and a couple of new ones, so now I’m feeding iTunes and syncing my iPod with glorious new music. Yummy.

I also got some chocolate-covered toffee pistachios at the Thomas Sweet chocolate shop. Honestly, eating two of those packs a wallop of chocolatey sweetness, so they are going to last me a while.

That sums it up. It’s what I’m doing. Trying to fit a tent, sleeping bag, climbing gear, sneakers, blow dryer, toiletries, hat, camera, umbrella, books, and clothes for 10 days of wildly varying weather — all into a suitcase and a carry-on. I am allowed 2 suitcases, but that just seems excessive for a 10 day trip.

Rather than being up until 3 in the morning and waking up at 6:30 (that was last night) when it’s my ninth straight day of work (that was today), I’m going to try my hand at going to bed now and getting up a little bit earlier tomorrow to review what I’ve packed with a clear mind before I have ten days of NOT work.

Thankfully, I’m good at spacial orientation (and Tetris) so packing is something I sort of enjoy. But I’ll enjoy it more when I don’t have a headache or brief spells of vertigo because I just really really need to sleep.

I don’t know how much I’ll be writing. Maybe a bit, maybe nothing. Maybe it will be all about Twitter.

For now, let’s just confirm that starting Wednesday, April 23, this chick is on vacation.