July 9. Ashford, Georgia.
Ninety-four degrees. Ninety-seven percent humidity.
It gets crazy hot in the south in the summer, but it's worth it to have such short, mild winters. I like most all seasons and climes. I can get into an overcast drizzly autumn day great for curling up with a good book every bit as much as a cloudless blue summer sky, but I've never cared much for snow and ice.
I don't know how northerners put up with it. Or why. But I guess it's a good thing they do, otherwise they'd all be down here crowding us out.
Native to the sultry southern heat, I was louging by the pool in the backyard or my parents' house, wearing my favorite pink plka dotted bikini which went percectly with my new I'm Not Really a Waitress Pink maniucure and pedicure. I was sprawled in a cushion topped chaise soaking up the sun, my long black hair twisted up in a spiky knot on top of my head in one of those hirdow you really hope nobody ever catche you wearing. Mom and Dad were away on vacation, their thirtieth wedding anniversary with a twenty one day island hopping cruise through the tropics, which had begun two weeks ago in Maui and ended next weekend in Miami.
I'd been working devoredly on my tan in their absence, taking quick dips in the cool sparkling blue, then stretching out to let the sun toast drops of water from my skin, wishing my sister Alina was around to hang out with, adn maybe invite a few friends over.
My IPod was tucked into my dad's BOse SoundDock on the patio table next to me, bopping cheerily through a playlist I'd put together specifically for poolside sunning, composed of the top one hundred one hit wonders from the past few decades, plus a few other that make me smile happy mindless music to pass happy mindless time. It waas currently playing as old Louis Arstrong song "What a Wonderful World." Born cyynical and direnchanted is cool, sometimes I'm a little off the beaten track. Oh well.
A tall glass of chilled sweet tea was at hand and the phone was nearby n case Mom and Dad made ground sooner then expected. They weren't due ahore teh next island untile tomorrow, but twice now they'd landed sooner then scheduled. Shice I'd accidentally dropped my cell phone in the pool a few days ago, I'd been toting the cordless around so wouldn't miss a call.
Fact was, I missed my parents like crazy.
At first, when they left, I'd been elated by the prospect of time alone. I live at home and when my parents are there the house sometimes feels annoyingly like Grand Central Station, with Mom's friends and Dad's golf buddies, and ladies from the church poping in, punctuated by neighborhood kids stopping over with one excuse or another, conveniently clas in their sim trunks gee, could they be angling for an invitation?
But after two weeks of much longed for solitude, I'd begun choking on it. The rambling huse seemed achingly quiet,
especially in the evenings. Around supper time I'd been feeling downright lost. Hungry, too. Mom's and amazing cook and I'd burned out fast on pizza, potato chips, and mac n cheese. I couldn't wait for one of her fried chicken, mashed potatoes,
fresh turnip greens, and peach pie with homemade whipped cream dinners. I'd even done the grocery shopping in anticipation, stocking up on everything she needed.
I love to eat. Fotunately, it doesn't show. I'm healthy through the bust and bottom, but slim through the waist and thighs. I have good metabolism, though Mom says, Ha, wait until you're thirty then, forty then, fifty. Dad says, More to love Rainey and gives Mom a look that makes me concentrate really hard on something else. Anything else. I adore my parents, but there's such a thing as TMI. Too much information.
All in all, I ahve a great life, short of missing my parents and counting the days until Alina gets home from Ireland,
but both of those are temporary, soon to eb rectified. My life will go back to being perfect again before much longer. Is ther such a thing as tempting the Fates to slice one of the most imprtant threads that holds your life together simply by beign too happy? When the phone rang, I through it was my parents.
It wasn't...
Ninety-four degrees. Ninety-seven percent humidity.
It gets crazy hot in the south in the summer, but it's worth it to have such short, mild winters. I like most all seasons and climes. I can get into an overcast drizzly autumn day great for curling up with a good book every bit as much as a cloudless blue summer sky, but I've never cared much for snow and ice.
I don't know how northerners put up with it. Or why. But I guess it's a good thing they do, otherwise they'd all be down here crowding us out.
Native to the sultry southern heat, I was louging by the pool in the backyard or my parents' house, wearing my favorite pink plka dotted bikini which went percectly with my new I'm Not Really a Waitress Pink maniucure and pedicure. I was sprawled in a cushion topped chaise soaking up the sun, my long black hair twisted up in a spiky knot on top of my head in one of those hirdow you really hope nobody ever catche you wearing. Mom and Dad were away on vacation, their thirtieth wedding anniversary with a twenty one day island hopping cruise through the tropics, which had begun two weeks ago in Maui and ended next weekend in Miami.
I'd been working devoredly on my tan in their absence, taking quick dips in the cool sparkling blue, then stretching out to let the sun toast drops of water from my skin, wishing my sister Alina was around to hang out with, adn maybe invite a few friends over.
My IPod was tucked into my dad's BOse SoundDock on the patio table next to me, bopping cheerily through a playlist I'd put together specifically for poolside sunning, composed of the top one hundred one hit wonders from the past few decades, plus a few other that make me smile happy mindless music to pass happy mindless time. It waas currently playing as old Louis Arstrong song "What a Wonderful World." Born cyynical and direnchanted is cool, sometimes I'm a little off the beaten track. Oh well.
A tall glass of chilled sweet tea was at hand and the phone was nearby n case Mom and Dad made ground sooner then expected. They weren't due ahore teh next island untile tomorrow, but twice now they'd landed sooner then scheduled. Shice I'd accidentally dropped my cell phone in the pool a few days ago, I'd been toting the cordless around so wouldn't miss a call.
Fact was, I missed my parents like crazy.
At first, when they left, I'd been elated by the prospect of time alone. I live at home and when my parents are there the house sometimes feels annoyingly like Grand Central Station, with Mom's friends and Dad's golf buddies, and ladies from the church poping in, punctuated by neighborhood kids stopping over with one excuse or another, conveniently clas in their sim trunks gee, could they be angling for an invitation?
But after two weeks of much longed for solitude, I'd begun choking on it. The rambling huse seemed achingly quiet,
especially in the evenings. Around supper time I'd been feeling downright lost. Hungry, too. Mom's and amazing cook and I'd burned out fast on pizza, potato chips, and mac n cheese. I couldn't wait for one of her fried chicken, mashed potatoes,
fresh turnip greens, and peach pie with homemade whipped cream dinners. I'd even done the grocery shopping in anticipation, stocking up on everything she needed.
I love to eat. Fotunately, it doesn't show. I'm healthy through the bust and bottom, but slim through the waist and thighs. I have good metabolism, though Mom says, Ha, wait until you're thirty then, forty then, fifty. Dad says, More to love Rainey and gives Mom a look that makes me concentrate really hard on something else. Anything else. I adore my parents, but there's such a thing as TMI. Too much information.
All in all, I ahve a great life, short of missing my parents and counting the days until Alina gets home from Ireland,
but both of those are temporary, soon to eb rectified. My life will go back to being perfect again before much longer. Is ther such a thing as tempting the Fates to slice one of the most imprtant threads that holds your life together simply by beign too happy? When the phone rang, I through it was my parents.
It wasn't...