Ten.Two Thousand, Two Hundred & Sixty-Seven

1. Is that rain I’m hearing? Yes, it is. I don’t think that was on the forecast.

2. A flash of light. A hum.

3. Where are all of my emergency flashlights?

4. “You’ll never outperform the version of yourself you have in your mind.”

5. A long but easy drive.

6. Growth over everything.

7. Over and over and over again.

8. A cool sea breeze and lots of sun.

9. Still can’t get over that D- report card for that fantasy draft.

10. A lot of gold wine glasses and tumblers.

Ten.Two Thousand, Two Hundred & Sixty-Six

1. Friday.

2. There will always be more.

3. On the wall are boxes with pamphlets that say “Your baby at 12 weeks” and for 2 minutes I think it might be nice to have another baby.

4. She tries to warn me about the bags. I tell her I know about these paper bags. These handles have been consistently unreliable for at least ten years.

5. Oysters. Tomato soup. Macaroni and cheese.

6. One day, I’ll pay someone to really clean these baseboards and the molding on the doors. I wonder how many people look at the corners of the molding on the doors and try to clean them with Q-tips and cloth-covered fingernail files like I do.

7. Another variation of the same thing.

8. We did not build any anticipation.

9. Football season goal: to not eat a single thing from a snack shack.

10. What is that smell?!

Ten.Two Thousand, Two Hundred & Sixty-Five

1. Craving hammock time.

2. I just need to get these done.

3. Salty snacks for anxiety?

4. At least when he’s here, you know you’re going to laugh.

5. She affirms what I’m feeling. I want to lay out on the floor.

6. More cars than usual parked on the side of the road. Dropped clusters sprawled across upturned earth. I make note of the variation of canopies.

7. The weekly by-the-glass special is a rosé of Grenache. I get two glasses and take them to the back patio. Quiet and breezy and golden-sun. I should come here more often. This is going to be the new spot, I think.

8. She does the last handful of serves before the win.

9. “So it is like a Pink Ladies jacket…”

10. My one hotdog of the year: No bun. A swirl of ketchup and yellow mustard. One homemade rice krispie treat. A spoonful of cut watermelon. And so it begins.

Ten.Two Thousand, Two Hundred & Sixty-Four

1. Second day. Jeans day. Cool morning.

2. At least two

3. Time away always comes at a cost. But nothing is truly an emergency.

4. I’m just confused.

5. The three of us just standing there, arms crossed, heads cocked to the side. We’re clearly all thinking the same thing.

6. A jokester.

7. “What do you do for self-care?”

8. Her very first high school volleyball game. Hot and sweaty gym. He shows me pictures of his new grandbaby. I think I like this sport much more than I thought I would.

9. A 5-D approach?

10. Need a better plan.

Ten.Two Thousand, Two Hundred & Sixty-Three

1. Bright sun. Cool air. First day of school. And so it begins.

2. Clarity and refinement.

3. “…we are also always changing within. Our moods, our energy level, the stories we tell ourselves, our prior experiences, how hungry or tired we are: All these variants create a new way of being in each moment.” - The Creative Act: A Way of Being

4. I know this feeling.

5. One old school, one new school.

6. “That was the last time my sister drank.”

7. Great women doing great things.

8. I learned some new things today.

9. I forgot to flip the pork chops because we were too busy talking. “We haven’t talked in five days,” I say.

10. If these Kung Fu Panda characters were real people in our lives, who would they be?