Sometimes the writerly part of my brain just shuts down. When its exhausted it lets me know by refusing to produce creative thought but instead things like ‘strawberries are like – crazy’ and ‘whoa – being home is like – being at home.’ Usually I beat myself up when I get like this. Instead, this year, I am giving my brain a holiday break and giving myself permission, instead, to fill up on shrimp cocktail, Community and and JoDee Messina, which most likely do not correlate with the increase of intelligence levels, at all.