I think 228 was the house number of the first house that The Ex and I owned. Isn’t it funny the random minutiae you remember…and the important things you forget?

Speaking of memory, what is your very first memory? I feel like my earliest memory is when I was in SoCal during the summer…my aunt/uncle/cousins and my grandparents had an up-down duplex…and I was little, I’m going to say 3 or 4? And it was dark, or at least dusk. I’d been downstairs but wanted to go upstairs to watch tv with my cousins. The stairs were outside the building. And they were those stairs with no backs? The kind where the boogeyman can reach through from the back and grab your ankles and never let you go, so you go up and down as quickly as you can so he can’t catch you? Anyway, it’s dark, I’m hurrying up the steps alone…and stop for a moment to watch the Hollywood theater’s searchlights roaming the night sky. At the time I doubt I knew what they were, but I remember feeling alarmed. Searchlight on TOP of scary, backless steps alone at night.

Looking back I’m like who sends a 3-4 year old outside alone at night like that? And, this is just the first in a long chain of bad memories. I definitely feel like more memories are about bad things happening vs good. Is that just me, or is it like that for you, too?

MONDAY

It was a Tue/Thur in-the-office week. And I took a personal day today as I have a few left to use up before I lose them in September. And what fun thing did I do on my day off??

Remember this from last week? And from June? And April? And February??

Woohoo! The Christmas! She is away! And now the ac sits in the spot until I get IT in the window. It’s not a simple “open window, insert ac, close window, enjoy cool air” process. It starts with just getting the double-paned window OPEN. A trick apparently only Mr. Landlord knows the secret to. See that right-hand window above Caleb? I can’t figure out how to get that one open either. Anyway, then it moves into braces and screwing things into wood and stuffing gaps with stuff. It’s just not a one-person-with-no-power-tools job. And frankly, it’s been mild enough that I haven’t really suffered for not having it. As long as I stay still and quiet it’s not that bad in here. So far.

It’s coming. The heat. It’s coming.

TUESDAY

Work at work today. One small program is open so there are like 5 kids in the building.

After work sat in the shade by a park parking lot with a girlfriend until it started looking ominous.

WEDNESDAY

This is the landscaper’s office parking lot where I do pictures sometimes. Maybe once a season-ish when the planters change. Funny small-world story, one of the owners taught a landscape drafting class I took eons ago, gosh, maybe in my late 20s/early 30s? And I had a big crush on him. Ha ha.

THURSDAY

Work in-office day. Yesterday half the “main school program” kids came back…and today the other half (they’re alternating days) was there. Was fun to see kiddos.

Dinner out with a  girlfriend.

FRIDAY

Possibly the last work-from-home day. Bittersweet. Oh, who am I kidding? Bitter. I have legit slept better the past four months than I have over the past 10 years. Anxiety down. Way down. So far down. So far down I barely remember I even had it.

It’s coming. The anxiety. It’s coming.

SATURDAY

Sat with friend in the shade in a nearby park by the water from morning til afternoon. We knew it was hot out cuz Weather Kitty told us so…but man it was not touching us in the shade.

I have decided that is my life’s goal. To be able to sit in the shade.

In the parking lot next to the park there is a weekly farmer’s market. I got a pretzel and an ice coffee to take over to our shade spot.

SUNDAY

I’m not giving you the finger. I’m trying to show you that my broiler element burn is in the shape of a heart. Ish. It was very challenging to take a close-up photo of my right hand.

Did a little blog work today, finished my book, washed the dishes. Have to make food for the work-week, one of those annoying tasks that take up too much time on Sunday evening that you don’t have to do when you WORK FROM HOME.

Don’t worry, the whining will stop. Eventually.

What I’m watching

Still nothing. I feel like every summer I say “I should cancel a streaming account or two during the summer cuz I just never turn the tv on.”

Yep. I say that.

WHAT I’M READING

Singin’ and Swingin’ and Getting Merry Like Christmas by Maya Angelou. This is the third in the series of her autobiography series. She’s like 20-25 and it covers the time period from 1949-1955. I know I said this last time but man did she have an interesting life! You know how you hear those stories about writers and artists in the 40s and 50s and…I don’t know, just meeting up in random places and “Let’s take a trip to Istanbul! We’ll drink and talk and laugh!” and all these creative strangers just go off to Istanbul…I’m thinking like…Hemingway and Kerouak and I’m sure there were some painters in there whose names I’m just not thinking of. But her life was like THAT. Before she was a writer she was a dancer-singer and yes, she made her own opportunity by being talented and unafraid, but she just always seemed to be in the right place at the right time and catch the eye of the right people and one thing would lead to another and another…and while she started as a young single mother just trying to keep her young son fed, soon she’s traveling around Europe with an all-Black opera company!

All that said, this was probably my least favorite of the 3 I’ve read so far. All the characters involved with her performing at nightclubs in San Francisco and then that she was traveling with…it was too many people for me. Too much detail about other people.

THAT said (ha, longest book review ever), it is still interesting reading of her experiences during that time – how white Americans felt about Black people…how Black people felt about white Americans, how things were the same but different overseas.

I think if you just read this one it would feel sort of stuck out there not attached to anything. I think you need to read the series in order. They’re short and easy reading because it’s just one tale of adventure after another.

#1 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

#2 Gather Together in My Name

#3 Singin’ and Swingin’ and Getting Merry Like Christmas

#4 The Heart of a Woman

#5 All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes 

#6 A Song Flung Up to Heaven

And that is all, my friends. Hope you have a safe, peaceful week.

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