Last night I told John not to wake me up when he leaves in the morning. Just for the summer, I said. And I asked him to take the dog out before he left. I also told him he didn’t need to make me the tea he usually makes in the morning, which I thought would be a relief. This did not sit well with him though and he’s been jostling between the silent treatment and stomping around, ranting about unrelated topics every since. We are laying in the dark, him reading, me typing, in complete silence.

Today while Henry was in his guitar lesson and I was waiting for him in the lobby, two of the other moms started up a conversation next to me. Actually it was more like one of the moms took the other one hostage and held her by forced conversation. It went on for the entire 50 minutes, even after the nice one tried very politely to get away by saying she had to send some emails. The odd one, wearing a tye-dye t-shirt and a backpack filled to the gills, loudly told everyone within ear shot about the details of her life. It turns out that she is “visually inconvenienced” so she can use all the low cost bus and cab transportation to get she and her daughter around town. The daughter was diagnosed as autistic in 6th grade and as dyslexic in kindergartner. Her own visual impairment began 12 hours after birth when her visual cortex became starved for some reason. I guess this is the part where I feel bad for them and count my blessings but the truth is that I spent the first half of their conversation wishing the woman would just shut up so I could read in peace, and the second half transfixed by the horror of it all.

On the way home Henry pointed out a handwritten sign on a telephone pole that read “College Hunks (303) xxx-xxxx”. We laughed.