Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Tuesday

I find myself bouncing around locations like a pinball hitting a bumper. NYC, Fire Island, NYC (reprise) and now NJ for a few days. I figure I should spend the extra time I have off with my parents. I don't spend "city" money or keep "city" schedules when out here with Mom, Dad, a full fridge and the crickets of a suburban summer.

Life, a little less slower. A vacation from vacation. I'm sitting down to 6:30 dinners of London broil, spinach and corn on the cob. The big debate my mother and I had this evening was nothing more painstaking than choosing between ice cream or iced coffee.

There are stars out here. Slight punctures of darkness so easily forgotten in the city yet so commonplace here that their brightness goes unnoticed, as does the incessant chirp of cicadas and the rustling of lush leaves in the heavy-humid breeze.

Right now, the room is lit only by the blue-black flicker of the television airing the Olympics and my father snoring through the commercials. The hum of central air conditioning lingers above me and the couch is cotton-like and welcoming.

Tomorrow as part of my vacation fueled, aimless, do-what-ever coup de etat I'll go to Sandy Hook beach and re submerge myself within the with-it culture. I'll leave behind the sticky air and quiet hardly traveled pavement and trade it in for sand and noise and jelly fish and trash.

It'll be around 6 when I get home. The time of day when yellow touches upon gold and Mom walks in the door sweating and pink from a brisk walk or game of tennis. She will prepare dinner after taking a shower and Dad will leave the computer or his sport's scores to come to the table. We'll sit down and pass the salad with stories of the day and flick the salt shaker in between anecdotes. When we finish mom will clear the plates and Dad will return to television. I'll curl up on the couch, let the cushions take my form, and try just for a moment, to lie as still as this house, which stands in the grass under the suburban stars.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

That sounds just about perfect.

Except for the trash/jellyfish, of course.

Have a good time, brotha. Enjoy your downtime. See you when you get back to the big city.

PS - Awesome running into you on FI. That was a great surprise. :-)

Todd E. said...

What a sweet post.

dpaste said...

You go to the Hook? Gunnison? Don't tease me.

Anonymous said...

thats nice. you are extremely blessed.

Anonymous said...

Just found your blog this week. I love the entries involving your family and you write beautifully. I lost both of my funny, warm, parents by the time I was 37. I regret all of those nights when I cut out of a family dinner to hang out with friends in some club someplace I don't even remember now with people whose names I forget trying to get phone #'s of guys who were, ultimately, forgettable. Looking back, I'd so rather have spent those nights with mom and dad. Enjoy them while you have them - they are a gift, especially when you can just be who you are around them.

Anonymous said...

Very nice entry buddy.

I agree with the previous poster ; enjoy your parents while you have them and cherish the fact that you all get along.

p.s. You're a great writer...you capture the moment,the atmosphere and the reader can totally picture everything in their mind.

Hugs

Anonymous said...

This is a very nice piece. You are a good writer in addition to being a furry little hottie. Enjoy your vacation.

Michael said...

Nice meeting you the other night at High Tea

Anonymous said...

Gayest. Entry. Ever.

(How's your tanline, Groover?)

dpaste said...

I wasn't going to say anything, but since bstewart23 went there...

Adam said...

I remember all those damned jellyfish at Sandy Hook when I was a kid. My dad caught a flying fish off the beach there once, it was cool.

Anonymous said...

Lovely and a reminder of times past at my mother's house near Morristown before my mom left us. Surprise your mom and do the dishes for her.

Tony Adams said...

Is that Carly Simon singing "Well that's the way I always heard it should be" in the background?

(Very finely drawn.)