Snapshot

Life: It’s cloudy out and I sort of wish I could spend the day sleeping, but I also have the day at home so I want to be productive. There are query letters fanned out across the carpet behind me, Gracie is sleeping in the living room, Oliver is staring out the kitchen window, I have a stack of library books on viruses for new-book research, I’ve just finished reading a novel that made me cry, after dinner last night Jessica D. and I talked about taking over the world, or something like that. Gracie just sauntered into my office and curled up on the futon. It’s not raining anymore, but it feels like it should be. Oliver got the rest of the rose last night and it had to be thrown away. Now he’s found his way to the office too and is trying to rearrange my thigh into something fit for sleeping on. And it’s July today, the year half over, my sixth wedding anniversary around the corner, summer in full swing, the beans protesting the heat by looking pale and wimpy along the fence, the tomatoes blushing, on their way to ripe. The sun is starting to come out, but I wish it wouldn’t. I’d like a day of shade, a gray restful day, a contrast to the bright and the heat, the intensity that I love but that wears me out.