I’d forgotten what a joy it is to listen to NPR. I often need silence when working or writing — now for instance, I can’t listen to talking on the radio, or even songs with words, when I need to hear the voice in my head telling me what to write, [no, not that kind of voice] but the things I’m working on at the moment for work are sort of mindless. I listened to a couple of audiobooks, but got bored with the one I was listening to.

Today, in the car after dropping the kids off at school, I heard an interesting interview with Junot Diaz about being a foreigner in the US and wanted to hear the rest of it. I did, and kept the radio on all day (except when they discussed animal cruelty). I heard Obama’s press conference. I heard some slam poetry. I heard James Franco discussing his role in the new movie about Harvey Milk.

Such a small pleasure, but it made my day. I think I’ll do it again tomorrow.