I worked a lot today. I did.
I turned in a couple projects and made some good progress on some archival rewrites and did some research for a social post for next week. I did all of that from home.
I also semi-watched a couple hours of Justice League Unlimited with Grant and remembered how good that show is. I’ve enjoyed sharing it with Conor over the years, and now it’s Grant’s turn, and he loves it, and that fills up some of the parts of my soul that have been flashing vacancy signs lately.
Grant and I also went to our neighbors’ pool for about an hour and a half in the middlle of the hottest day of the year. He just turned 7 years old, so he doesn’t stop. (That’s his job: To start in the morning and go hard all day until he burns himself out, and then rise again like a damned phoenix the next morning and do it all over again.) I was the only other person in the pool with him because Conor is away at camp and Kristy was busy at a work retreat, so I played games and did flips and jumped off the diving board and moved nonstop the whole time. I didn’t get in a walk this morning, so this counted for the full day’s workout. I generally hate working out, so that was a win for both of us.
Tonight Kristy and I had reservations at the rooftop bar at Crossroads Hotel in Kansas City. God, it’s nice to go out again. I’m not going to say things are getting back to normal or anything, because a lot of things still aren’t. Our economy is in a recovery that doesn’t feel much like a recovery. Our politics and public conversations are completely fucked. There are people I care about whose voices I haven’t heard in over a year, and I don’t know how to make those connections again. The last year has taken such an incredible toll on so many parts of our lives.
But just as Grant and I connected a lot today over things we both love, Kristy and I laughed a lot tonight and didn’t talk much about kids or work. Those things obviously matter, but there are so many other things in our lives that are worth talking about, too. There’s art and books and travel plans and critical race theory (which we haven’t really talked about since grad school because it’s not something that dominates people’s attention outside of the Fox News propaganda bubble). It’s always good to be reminded that you have things to talk about outside the mundane bullshit of the day. Things that make us think and feel and connect.
It’s also nice to watch the sun go down as you’re sitting on a plush bench on a rooftop bar with the plants behind you tickling your neck as a steady breeze makes them dance around your head. And then, when you’re driving home in the dark with The National playing on the radio, it’s good to feel that light burn just under your skin that reminds you that you just had a great nearly-summer day.
It’s not sunburn. There’s no red on your skin that needs aloe or anything. It’s not going to wake you up in the middle of the night. But there’s a tingle just below the surface of your skin that comes from being out in the sun shirtless for a little too long without your winter skin being fully acclimated yet. And that’s one of the best feelings you can feel just before a seasonal transition.
Summer starts for real in two days. And after today, I think I’m ready for it. (Even when it's 100 damned degrees outside.)
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