6 Vignettes for a Monday.

Vignette #1: 6:00 this morning. Me holding Walker up to the mirror and him reaching out, patting his image, and flirting shamelessly with it. Me thinking, "work? really? now? today?" Blah.

Vignette #2: I load the warmed up Pathfinder with diapers, bottles, jars of food, my bag for work ... then 2 dogs ... then a baby in his upholstered bucket. The wagon train pulls out from the snow pack to the sounds of the dogs slamming up against the windows, panting, and whining. Slamming, panting, and whining continues for, oh, duration of the drive to people daycare. I think to myself "Wow, that is so sad that Walker can't nap on the way to daycare anymore because of those dumb dogs." I open the side door and there he is, orange hunting hat on, fast asleep, rosy cheeks. *sigh* Wonder Baby does it again.

Vignette #3: I'm listening to the VPR pledge drive. And as they reel off the names of people who have just pledged, an unmistakable glee emanates from the radio,
"Oh, and Howard Dean of Burlington, VT. He said he loves all the shows and his wife Judy loves Car Talk."
Vermont. Seriously. You gotta love it.

Vignette #4: I'm barreling down 189 trying to gauge what jackass will be barreling down the on-ramp at the same time. Vermont is just full of people barreling on and off on-and-off ramps. It drives me insane. It promotes a type of kamikaze driving that, quite frankly, my frail motherly constitution can no longer tolerate. I look over. There he is. Shiny clean grey Jeep Cherokee coming down the shute like a bat out of hell. A novel twist: I actually look over and this guy looks back. We make eye contact! I step on the gas and win the 189 smackdown for today. Then realize the guy is still behind me. I turn on my blinker to go right, so does he. I turn on my blinker to go right again, so does he. I do it again, so does he. I park at Starbucks, so does this fool. I walk in, I'm right behind him. He places his order "Non-fat vanilla latte." Oh brother, I think, order a MAN'S drink for god sakes. Competition over. I win.

Vignette #5: Drive from Starbucks to work thinking about Friday. Remember that when I was sitting at my desk Friday morning with my coffee, I took a big swig, put it down, and then thought "My coffee smells like baloney." And then that reminded me of when my friend Mike was eavesdropping at a restaurant when we lived in L.A. and heard this exchange that probably remained his favorite til the day he died:
"Ow."
"What?"
"I think I cut myself on a potato."

Vignette #6: Our friends Joe and Michelle had their baby this past Saturday. She is the first baby that's been born to close friends since we had Walker and it's inevitably had me thinking—a lot—about bringing Walker home almost 9 months ago. It was summer, everything was green, the air was warm. When I got out of the Pathfinder, I saw that Jon had spent some of his dogsitting time at home planting flowers for our arrival. He planted petunias where our former Weed Garden stood. He built wooden planter boxes and filled them with snapdragons. And he planted little white and purple Johnny Jump Ups in the barren patches of dirt on either side of our front door. I remember thinking, take it in. Look around, smell the air, look at Jon, look at the baby. Take it all in. This is your life. Be happy.