Good morning, Luttville. Janet here.

Perhaps it’s time we got to know each other a little better. So here, for your reading pleasure, my morning routine:

You might take me for a tardy person, but this is an ignorant assumption. I arrive at Luttville Medical Center at 7:55am each Monday-Friday.

Just before I begin my work, I walk to the office kitchen. There, I fill my commuter mug with ice-cold Arnold Palmer, for chilled skin deters mosquitos and other bugs. I then acquire my second and final item in this room: a single-use pack of yogurt. Fingers wrapped round the portable dairy, I make my way to my desk, settle in, and get on with it.

This is the routine.

However, this Tuesday morning, the shelf from which I take yogurt was empty, save for froths of plastic bag containing the heels of what once were bread loaves. There must have been an overwhelm of emotion in the office air because, uncharacteristically, I expressed dismay…

And sighed.

Only moments before my outburst, and unbeknownst to me, Katie had entered the kitchen. Like a fruit fly, she was entirely silent and unnoticeable until making herself known. At which point she could have irritated a Zen master right out of the deepest meditative state.

Distracting though she is, she can be rather helpful. And admittedly proved herself so this morning, twofold even, by presenting me with not only breakfast, but a conclusion to today’s piece:

Just when you think you can’t do something, you can. Just when you think the office refrigerator is out of yogurt, it is. But there is an aptly named convenience store down the street, and Katie will go pick some up for you.

Janet out.