Ten.One Thousand, Five Hundred & Ninety-Seven

1. This amount of sleep is abnormal.

2. More coffeecake for them. Leftover ham and scrambled eggs for me.

3. “7:50 and no one is here yet?” They trickle in slowly, but everyone is on time. Barely.

4. We wonder if it’s cultural conditioning. Boys are expected to devote their lives to their sport. I don’t see the same kind of expectation for the girls.

5. Staring into the sun while I eat garlic fries. It feels busy down here.

6. We sit on the bench outside of the barbershop and talk. We look at the trees on the roofs of cars and rate them. “It’s really noisy here.” “And this is not even a big city,” I say. “It’s just that our town is so small and quiet that this seems so loud.”

7. He takes the corners a little more slowly than usual.

8. I get her Christmas list presentation. It’s animated. I’m impressed. “I wonder where she gets it from?”

9. It’s not yet 7pm.

10. How am I this tired?