Just for kicks, let’s do a list of things that distract me from whatever it is I’m doing at any given time.

• Whenever I walk or ride my bike around campus, I’m prone to noticing one or two of the gazillion squirrels around here. Every ten feet. And every time I see the little critters, I have to take a moment and watch them, because I’ll be darned if they’re not just the cutest things in the world. Running or pouncing or munching bread crusts or fighting to the death over their territory. I was almost late for an appointment I had last week because I got too involved watching two squirrels duke it out over who got to climb a tree.

• Other people multi-tasking distracts me. I got home tonight and my roommate was changing the soap in the fancy soap dispenser for her kitchen sink. She was going off about her day and I found myself tuning her out in favor of wondering what on earth could possibly be wrong with something in this house (given that everything gets so little use around here). It reached a point where I interrupted her diatribe by saying “What’s wrong with the sink?” probably louder than was actually necessary.

• Watching the actions of pedestrians while I’m driving is distracting to me. As I was leaving campus today, I had to wait for a pedestrian to cross the intersection before I could turn right. He was taking an awfully long time to cross, so I looked at him more closely. He shuffled along, hat on his head, glasses sliding forward, and finger up his nose. I stared after the guy until he had safely made it to the sidewalk, and marveled at the audacity to pick one’s nose not only in full view of the public, but to actually stop traffic while doing so. I was so distracted, in fact, that I didn’t realize that I was actually in my car, and able to drive onward, until the light turned yellow. Damn.