6/22- A Simpler Day

Monday morning wafted itself through my windows on the wave of a building muggy heat. Despite my early night I'd slept in and missed the house departing. I had called Hannah the night before saying I wasn't going to make the BBQ but would be up for hanging out Monday. Moseying down to the kitchen I made some coffee and gave her a call to see what was going on.

Hannah seemed a spunky kind of girl, very artistic and energetic, which wasn't a surprise to me given that she's friends with Loreli. She invited me to head out to a bicycle museum that was free and a few other things going on around town. After sitting on the front porch having my coffee and writing a little I made my way to her house, following that familiar route of yesterday morning. When I got there, however, I knocked on the door to a harried cry of "Sorry, Chris, can't come out. Work called last minute and I gotta go in. Sorry." In my lazy mood at that time and slowly dawning need for reclusion I was actually quite alright with that outcome. Sure I was curious to meet Loreli's friends from another time, but at this point I felt as though I might be pushing myself beyond what I should be doing with myself.

I took the last minute changes as an opportunity to go for a long walk on my own and get myself sorted again. There was a vague map in my head of different spots Loreli had marked as notable to her upbringing so I aimed myself their way. It turned out to be entirely in the opposite direction to where those places actually were, but that was neither here nor there at the moment. I turned myself south and walked about two or three miles down one street, found out I was going in completely the wrong direction and turned myself around to head in the right one.

Mostly I just wanted the walk. I strolled along side the edge of a country club eating the mulberries growing in the trees along the way. My brain wasn't even really thinking of anything, I think it was just undoing the knots I'd twisted myself up into somehow. I'm still not even quite sure how I got myself into this state, I just knew I was feeling it and walking untangles it. By about 3 in the afternoon I found myself at a library and popped in for an hour before returning home again.

It was another lazy night at the house again and I got a bit of the story behind how Loreli had come to be there. They had played a very similar role in Loreli's life as my mom had for one of my sister's friends back when I was growing up after my parents had split. The short story of it was that when there was trouble at home and Loreli needed a place to go Dave and Lindsay opened up their home to her despite not really having any connection as far as I could tell previous to that. From then on they were family to the point where Izzy now calls them Pop Pop and Mimi, and they have another daughter.

The night wound down to Jon Stewart and ice cream and soon I'd be shuffling back out on to the road again.