Friday, July 16, 2010

sudden moves

My daughter tells me – only you would rewrite your life in the space of twenty-four hours.

I'm thinking – twenty-four hours is a very long time.

I’m putting the condo up for sale tomorrow (sure, I’ll provide the link then; and a $500 off for the buyer who tells me she or he reads Ocean!).

In anticipation of change, I spend on this day many hours packing up books and clothes to pass on to various charities. I intend to keep things small. Really small. Thoughts and memories don't need closets. I shouldn't need closets.

It’s almost dusk, but not quite. Ed and I take the motorbike out to do the countless small errands that I defer because my teaching days (Monday through Thursday) are too full to allow for much else then. We stop by a shoe repair place. Cecil’s. Ed stays there to chat to Ron (Cecil) and to brush Ron’s cats. I pace in the parking lot of the strip mall and talk on my cell to my daughters. My decisions need a context. They want to hear the context.

A young boy comes by and tells me I should buy Mexican candy at his mom's shop next door.

We buy a few packs. Yes, of course, acquiring things I don't need (Mexican candy) runs against my determination to keep things simple on this day. But a little boy's face in the window surely permits for a sidestep. If life were to permit no sidesteps, we'd miss the joy of being surprised and teased out of our convictions.


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After Cecil’s, we motor over to one of Ed’s very favorite eating places – Brasserie V. It's been a while since I could ask for a glass of rosé and not get a shrug and a shake of the head from the waiter.


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We eat our moulles frites and we discuss my future options. They seem solid and good.


I wait for my other daughter to step off the bus tonight. She’ll be in Madison for the week-end. Yes, there's lots to talk about. Solid and good things, but you have to be prepared to see them that way. Through a glass of rosé perhaps.

[View condo for sale here.]