Daydreaming

It's Sunday, morning headache subsiding as the heat grows, but the ache is still hanging around enough to give me the excuse to lay on the bed listening to the Prairie Home Companion joke show and indulging in a few lotto fantasies. Do you have them? Today mine centers around planning a house party in a large, lovely home close to the ocean. We invite everyone we know to spend a week with us (that's as long as I could take such a crowd). The younger folks sleep on air mattresses on the deck around the firepit, or out in the orchard or poolhouse. We make and eat a lot of good food, play pool, picnic on the beach, go wine tasting, watch old movies outside projected on a sheet hung on the side of the house. Groups come and go in their activities. There's loud talk and laughter day and night, but thanks to that magic winning ticket, there are quiet places to disappear to for solitude and reflection. Little awakenings happen on the oversized chair in the dim corner of the library, in the bright sun and air of outdoor shower screened by hollyhocks and sunflowers, on the high swing over the creek.

Something about seeing people newly risen from sleep, mussed and pajama'd, eating waffles together after a late night of talk and games, creates a feeling of intimacy that I long to foster. I don't have to win the lottery to do this, I know.

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Ever since talking with a friend at work about his habit of sleeping on a lounge chair on his porch when the weather is hot, I've been wanting to drag the futon mattress outside to our deck and try it, making it more private by using some Indian-print bedspreads as screens. I should do it, shouldn't I? Rex would like it. I think it encouraged the aforementioned lotto fantasy.

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Inspired no doubt by Julia's recent blog, I have reached the apogee of fruit possession for the year. Yesterday I bought pineapple (some of which met the grill last night), green grapes, bananas, and apples at Whole Foods; stopped at the farmers market to purchase Dry Creek peaches and Petaluma strawberries; on their way to the airport to New Orleans for a cruise embarkation, Mom and Stepdad brought plums and more strawberries from their garden (they also gifted us with glorious maroon gladiolas, purple sweet peas, onions, green beans, carrots, and dill). Measuring the strawberries this morning, I came across a handful of raspberries tucked into a corner of the container. I consumed them all with bit of my favorite Greek yogurt, which helped to make me feel better.

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Started two books yesterday: Sick Puppy by Carl Hiaasen in print (which I forced a work friend to loan me) and the audio version of Master and Commander (from another colleague whom I did not have to force). Audio books are a good multi-tasking partner--it might even motivate me to finish cleaning and reorganizing the kitchen today, make a strawberry pie, and keep plugging away on the scarf for my friend that I started months ago. That is, if I ever get out of bed.