This is how it goes sometimes

Drink more water and start to feel better and comforted by the touch of a soft, fuzzy blanket on the foot. But at the same time, Tess of D'Ubervilles is coming up.

Or more specifically, walking around in a park in Illinois in 2005 and trying to enjoy nature but thinking why must I feel haunted by a story in a book I only skimmed and was never officially assigned. Why is it dominating my life after a layoff and during a long period of introversion.

Why is it hard to even speak to a checkout person at the library sometimes. 

Then you go back to reading the Joy of Cooking at age ten and wanting to try a lot of 1960s housewives recipes, like petit fours, but instead you mix nutmeg and blue food coloring into vanilla refrigerator cookie dough and eat it with your sister.