Ten.One Thousand, Five Hundred & Eighty-Six

1. Better today.

2. Comfort over everything else.

3. The coffee is too close to the top of the cup. I try to take large sips as I round the curb so that it doesn’t spill over the top.

4. Now it’s time to get creative.

5. She was born on a farm in the midwest. The name that comes up when her social security number is pulled is not exactly the same as the name that’s on these papers. Her husband is in an assisted living facility and can’t remember where he put all the papers. I can hear the panic in her voice. How, exactly, are we all supposed to get Real IDs?

6. I tell her I’m excited because I am finally, officially a Californian. “You just got your license today? How long you been there?”

7. Rare to stop and talk to two neighbors while walking up and down the mountain.

8. But on the bright side, at least there is more time.

9. Really, I’m just nervous.

10. Tomorrow.