teachers

"She's gotten so mean," her sister says.

But we are the ones who turned her float over when she was so perched on top with not one damp hair on her head. That girl was disappointed in us when she came up and understood the heartbreak of being so gullible as to sit on a float and talk with the girls.

But mama stood behind her and said, "That was mean. She trusted y'all."


And she was right.



Today I am grateful for sisters and a grammie and lessons that I should've learned by now.

getting started

Intense workout day.
Double digit cardio.
Double digit reps of push ups, sit ups, squats and preparing and planning.

10 miles
20 push ups
20 sit ups
20 squats
stretch
stand
pace
clean
sweep
make a list
do some work


Today I am grateful to begin.

question

on tonight's playlist after the babysitting gig?


Today I am also grateful for time with the kids.

Saturday with friends

Today I am grateful that you share your music.

infinite source

Today I am grateful for a week, for people, for help, for motivation, for replies, and for listening.

coffee

and pool music.



Today I am grateful for emails, credentials, people excited about building, creating, loving.



Also, last night was the first night he mentioned a 2021 Spartan race, our three man team.

treat

I'll take the proper meal yes thank you. Could you would you steak cookery me into an abundantly marbled, the most perfect, I agree on the ribeye, coarse kosher salt...Salt is what matters most in life. (someone finally understands) with a side of all bonded with each other. Ohmygosh yes. Yes, please.


So I'll play School Boy Crush while you cook.


Today I am grateful for a virtual dinner.

relent

He says I should ask different questions and he even goes so far as to suggest that I renounce the old ones. What is he thinking? Why hasn't he called me back? What did I do wrong?

He sure is smart. Let's dismiss this.

What opportunity lies ahead?
What is within me right now?


Today I am grateful for 20 hills and plenty of sweat.

and Fiji

 

meanwhile in Bombay

 

Today I am also grateful to meet with the queens and listen to some music.

easy like Sunday morning, the playlist

Today I am grateful for a playlist, a breakfast and a swim.

in response

The owls and I are not stopping you.

now I'm making promises

I thought about that when I unlatched the springform pan. It was pretty and made it to the fancy three legged beveled glass plate that he always complains about, but he smiled when he pulled it out of their fridge this evening, and I smiled when I got to see him take the first bite with that cream in a ball he scooped on top.

"I think it's my best. I really took my time with it."

He giggled as I stared him down.

We did good. Thank you for your help. I'll take a picture next time.



Today I am grateful for a pie, a few phone calls and a swim.



Alicia Keys on repeat on the porch tonight.

ten more minutes on the coffee

Which cup do you want or do you have your own?
We'll listen to Nora wonder if love is the answer or we'll dance to Michael and Tom.
You have to microplane the lemons.
We'll smile and whisper. Dare I suggest giggle?


There's that chance that we ruin everything.




Today I am grateful for a slow, make a pie kind of day.

lights on

You headed east. Me west. It was the look, the wave. Thank you.


Today I am grateful for our history, our music.


Got a song for a Friday night?
Or should we simply sit on the porch and listen to the toads and the crickets?

once upon a time

there was this girl who met this guy who she only wanted to run to and he was so supremely not interested that the girl thought dang I just need to go away. And why not? He is a type of torture for me and maybe we begin to outgrow a place because there's another place, right? I don't know. It's our music. Our music will always be with us. It doesn't matter where.

but there are other people who sneak into an apartment building to run and spray and laugh and love and that has to be true no matter where you or I go.



Today I am grateful for groceries, fresh red and green peppers, a car ride with three other people and teachers and teachers and teachers everywhere I go.


And they rode off into the sunset, whoever they are.



I was told beautiful stories as a child. I didn't live up to those, in response.

walk

Today I am grateful for a walk, sleep, food in the fridge and chance.

privileged here

You, the man. I have often slighted men for not being the man I thought he should be and I have even backed away, excused myself and ran from what I said was less than. So when I finally said, "You, the man."

And he said, "I'm trying to be."


I felt privileged in knowing him.


Today I am grateful for all privilege.

salt water

Today I am grateful for the last Gulf visit of the season, a drive down backroads, getting lost, finding our way, having my hair washed while listening to stories of sea turtles nesting and hatching and getting neck deep. I am grateful for a calendar and a list.

shoulda woulda coulda

I shoulda said, I love your writing, your music, the scene you paint. Thank you.

Today I am grateful for a weekend, a short trip and a hair cut.

you're killing me

Did you just type ambient temperature fried chicken on a river sandbar just as the bottom of the sun touches the tops of the trees? Dang. You are a writer. Unconditionally.



Today I am grateful for reprieve, forgiveness, the outer banks and a beautiful weekend.

in response

My brother is fixing me up and I don't think any of us really know how that works and yes, I did at one point request his services. But the last guy and there's always a last guy, right?

Anyway, coffee and my stories of adventure? We must hurry. My adventure stories get old fast.
Let's have a dinner.  A proper one. Your favorite meal at your favorite place.

Mine? I imagine you ask.

A walk with cold, fresh cherries and water.

swimday

By Wednesday we may note a lack of proper rest, an increase in caffeine and a restlessness to do more. Do it. This weekend will contain an epic nap because it is an epic week.


Today I am grateful for hope in the form of faces.

first day

The System

There was an energy I never could have imagined. It's always that way but still special because we're gripping to anything left. I did need to problem solve the coffee - 5 minute preparation to a 15 minute brew - 20 minutes to smell, listen to the timer, focus on what that warm liquid is going to taste like. Then pieces and people and questions and answers and the thought of you.

Today I am grateful for the sweet note, a jar, a bag of cherry tomatoes, a parade, kids, families, a call and a margarita.

the things you say, in response

You are close and whisper until right past the word evil, you breathe on my neck.
And then we write a story about vampires. Whatever. Whatever you want to write about.

I am grateful you are here on day one of a year.

pitch, toss, and talk

Dear little E,

Last night I gave you a baseball and instructions.

I am serious.


You are loved, baby.
Aunt Shea



Today I am grateful for an invite to a party and a kid I am now only imagining.

people representing stuff

Nobody should have to remind me, but she did.


Today I am grateful for a sweet gift, a text so full of love it would have been card stock if it had been paper and a kid and a show and I have to get better at this because I am surrounded by people I am honored to know.

no lights

It wasn't worth it, the cheat.
Not that it wasn't good.
It was just you know I worked too hard.
I want the stuff on a small square block of cream cheese,  cut with a wheat thin.

To music.


Today I am grateful to work with kindergarten teachers and to understand what her music tells me.

swim until we see the bats

"I ain't taking the little one no more."

He looks up from his throne.

"She's too young."

"Why are you in my living room?"

"I almost drowned tonight because that littlest one was being attacked by guinea wasps."

"She got attacked by guinea wasps?"

"Yes. And I almost drowned saving her life."

"She get stung?"


Today I am grateful for sleep, a shower, clean clothes, and a job to do.

thank you letter

Today I am grateful for three sisters and how this summer has become a nightly swim with a reading of letters between Miss Eula and Ruby. I am grateful for a teacher who sent me a book but as all teachers do - she sent me an assignment, too.

daddy's lemon pie

This made me order white truffle oil, and I'm already planning the Christmas meal.

Today I am grateful for the opportunity and ability to walk, run, stretch, swim and do whatever it takes for me to have one big spoonful of that macaroni and cheese.

monday

If you were ever exactly where you were supposed to be at the very precise moment when everybody needed relief, then yeah.

Today I am grateful for this morning, this afternoon, this evening.

what is sacred?

It's like a girl can't get a private moment around here, but I asked permission and I needed something to show you that I am grateful for a bag of jalapeños, a book titled Delta Jacks - And Other Cards, and some fancy earrings I already told Tadpole I couldn't wait to wear. I am also grateful for a goal food. You know, one of those things I have to work really hard to eat because this is worth a cheat.

Ten pounds less than what I weighed tonight, and I'm sharing this spooned over a block of cream cheese then cut with a wheat thin at a table with friends.

This weekend was sacred.

getting over Greg

His Black Crow came on right after that. The layers of his music from that range to a muscle in the back of your right shoulder. If you could just sit to that song without pushing your head forward, back, forward, back until you snap and get out of the chair. Then you remember how beautiful it is to wake up to the 2012 studio version of Ocean happens and you think how grateful you are for this morning and music.

Today I am grateful for a sense of completion.