It rang true years ago and it rings true hoy d�a, in these post-traumatic, post-9-11 times. We deserve a break today. The Vice Presidente needs his naps now and then to keep him spry and feisty. Concha needs her beauty esleep to keep those pesky arrugas from appearing around her eyes. ABC needs to take a break from its quality programming de vez en cuando, even if it means the public must temporarily forego the freshness, the breathtaking innovaci�n of brand-new episodes of The Chair.

Have you guessed what this is leading up to? S�, hijos, you got it. Ridiculous as it sounds, I also deserve a break. Today. Despite having just taken a Diarylandia vacaci�n for unos cuantos d�as. Like oneblackbird and her mentor Ferris Bueller, I have come to entender that "life moves pretty quickly. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it."

Adem�s, I have just begun to develop the mala costumbre of pirating other people's diaries for content and images. A costumbre which comes from having muy poco to say por m� misma.

As� que, I am putting down the pen and picking up my binoculars por un momento so I may watch the gay pageant of la vida progress around me. And soon, all too soon, I will return to Diarylandia like the golondrinas return to San Juan Capistrano, refreshed, reanimada, and all the wiser about the malas costumbres of mis vecinos.

In the meantime, may I recomendar some of my personal favorite entries? No? Well, here they are, anyway.

pottery mausoleum

got la llorona?

removable feasts

pomp and circumstance lite

it stinks

�Cu�dense!