Tuesday Evening

    I left work yesterday around 4:20 and came home to let the dead weight of my body fall onto my bed. A full day at the office mostly in front of a computer and my eyes feel tired, my body fatigued. I have felt great so far this week and I'm trying to hang onto that. Life however seems to include peaks and valleys that I can neither control nor reliably expect. I lay on my bed for a moment before rising. Its only 5:00, not even. I should get out, go for a walk, get some fresh air, be seen and run into people. I'd feel better. Refreshed.
   Walks are a wonderful thing. I'll be walking down the street when, from some yard or driveway or front porch, someone calls, "Emily!". I don't always know their names but I smile and greet them because its nice to be known and be friendly and its nice of them to remember me and to care to say hola.
    But today, my feeling of laziness wins and I stay in. Instead of putting on a comfy pair of flip flops and setting off for a stroll, I kick off my sandals, pour a drink and pickup a magazine call The Sun, lent to me by Roger. (www.thesunmagazine.com) It is a literary magazine that I am thoroughly enjoying. The contents are sometimes dark, but generally moving if not inspirational articles, poems, excerpts and letters. I leave the front screen door propped open with a rock so that the cat can come and go. From outside, I hear some rustling in the yard. The cat comes bolting inside and leaps onto my lap, nearly crawling behind my torso sitting in the chair. His maneuver makes me laugh and wonder what he's running from. Glancing outside, I see the puppy from next door who like to bite, an old mangy dog who lives across the street and a third dog I don't recognize, all happily frolicking and play wrestling in the grass in my yard.
    Smiling, I sit back down, but not before moving the rock from the front door, allowing it to close, so that the puppy can't get in the house (he can fit through the bars of my gated corridor) and to keep out the thirsty mosquitoes. Its getting dark outside which means it must be close to 6:00 - happy hour for mosquitoes to bit and feast on the blood of any vulnerable donor.