Gratitude
A Grateful Pause Before Summer
Baking cookies, grading papers, planning a little trip
We’re not having what I’d call pre-summer weather here, or even particularly springy weather. It’s been rainy and sometimes muggy. We’re used to a certain amount of rain, but mugginess this time of year is a bit strange. Last year it was clearer and sunnier. Yesterday I woke to a thunderstorm.
The calendar says we’re getting close to summer. Today I have a bunch of formal report drafts from my technical writing students awaiting my comments, yet I’m writing this informal reminder to myself of the gifts in my life, such as the time to bake sugar cookies on a whim last night, with the powdered sugar, flour, vanilla, almond extract, and baking soda from the cupboard and the eggs and butter from the fridge.
I think my grandma’s stove is starting to run a little hot, as the batch on the first cookie sheet came out crispy, but then I adjusted the temperature of the oven and the thickness of the cookies, and the rest were perfect, just the right bit of brownness on the bottom. It’s a gift to bake cookies in a warm home, using cookie cutters shaped like cats and flowers, after having a homemade dinner including fresh broccolini that we’d roasted lightly.
I’m supposed to be eating more greens. I’m trying. My dad is growing kale for me in his garden — I should go and pick some this afternoon. Marisa and I could walk there after she gets home from work.
Last night she walked and ran on her treadmill (she says it’s a “walking pad” but I’m not sure of the difference — it looks like a treadmill, maybe more compact?), and I read aloud from the novel we’ve been reading to relax at night. When I pointed out some of the silly parts of the plot, she reminded me that it’s supposed to be a lightweight book.
Yesterday afternoon I caught up on a bunch of work while watching Battle of the Sexes, starring Emma Stone as Billie Jean King and Steve Carell as Bobby Riggs. It’s the story of the start of the Women’s Tennis Association as well as Billie Jean King’s realization of her attraction to women. I always feel grateful to be able to watch stories like this at the press of a button on the TV remote; I couldn’t have imagined this as a kid, not the streaming video and not the storyline being depicted so freely.
I’m grateful, too, that Mr. Cat is feeling better even though this means he’s back to waking me up at five in the morning for his breakfast. When he was feeling ill, he slept in, and I gave him special food with lots of gravy to hide the fruit flavor of his antibiotics. Now he’s happy with the regular old food he’s always eaten (though he has plenty of special treats).
Last weekend, we moved one of my bookshelves from the living room to the tiny office bedroom, and I’m grateful for the pleasure of handling my books as I put them back on the shelf now. They are a comfort. This whole house is a comfort, and I often think about how my grandparents lived in a housing project and saved up to move here. A lot of people don’t think of the suburbs as a gift, but they are to me.
Today is Saturday and there’s a market in the little downtown square in front of city hall. Marisa is at work, but we’ll go another Saturday. The last time we went, she bought a chai spice liquor that she sometimes adds to tea for a nightcap.
When spring quarter wraps up in two weeks, we’re going to spend two nights at the ocean to look off into the endless distance over the water while walking along the boardwalk and the beach. We’ll see a couple of lighthouses and go into town to take a picture of what used to be the world’s largest frying pan.
The day after we get back, it will be the summer solstice. I’ll let you know what happens after that.
