Scenes from the bayou
Yesterday, was supposed to go something like this in my mind, I woke up and planned a day that involved getting exercise, working in the garden, and doing some work.
Yesterday, in actuality went more like this, lounge in bed, open front door and be greeted by a Hebe Pumpkin smiling up at me, retrieve and read the Sunday NYT, a knock on the door from a neighbor asking to watch his daughter while he and son go to the shooting range and mom runs the Breast Cancer race, Scooby Doo now inserted into the DVD and cereal and milk laid out, a piece of toast with scrambled eggs and truffle oil from Istria now in front of me, suddenly a race of 8,000 people go by the front door, afterwards, walk over to J’s and see what’s happening, return to work but in a split second decide instead to make Chicken Dumping Soup with chili broth and kaffir leaves for T and a friend for lunch, run to store get fixings, return to make soup, vacuum house, sit on the screen porch and eat lunch, T goes to nap, I go back to J’s to see what is happening and hang out, talk about work, come back to house to actually work but we decide to walk Loca around the bayou because it so outstandingly beautiful outside that people are laying in the grass and reclining on porches and being inside is intolerable, we pass a small impromptu jazz band on the pedestrian bridge, we pass a party at the house directly across the bayou where one of the guests has decided to swim across the bayou (we watch him get out, his body tattoo’d from head to toe), we come back around and pass our friends all lounging for the lord, drinking wine and eating french fries that are hot out of J’s oven, we force ourselves inside and both finally get to our work and then T makes us vodka tonics (pronounced, always, Wodka Tonics with her delicious accent), and to end the long, meandering day, we run a big hot bubble bath, light candles, and plunge in while we listen to Cheb i Sabbah’s Devotion.
Joseph Campbell said you have to be prepared to set aside the life you imagined for the one that awaits you. Amen.