A Night Walk in Summer

"She wanted simply to walk out of the office, walk out and go to a movie, then buy herself a new dress. then go to the store, then buy a pack of cigarettes, then go home and put on her new dress, then walk into her backyard, barefoot, with a scotch in her hand and a pack of cigarettes, and watch the sun go down. She wanted to do all of these simple things as if she were a young teacher on the first day of summer vacation."

From In Perfect Light by Benjamin Alire Saenz (the author whose writing workshop I attended last month)


A week ago, I finished up school. It felt good. Today Evan and I took Annie on a night walk after her agility class. We just completed the initial papers to buy a house. We were walking in that very neighborhood just to get a feel for it, especially after dark. It was nice. The house is right off of a busy street, so we can hear a bit of traffic, but the street leads in a dead end that is undeveloped. We must have seen at least 8 deer in that grassy patch of land. Our house in one story, with a great room that is tiled, three bedrooms, a kitchen with new cabinets, and a garage for Evan to get messy. And Annie gets a yard. It's scary to be making this big decision. Yet we can't wait to have a home that we can paint and invite people into. A space for us to make our own. Our closing date is June 30. Time for sleep....