Memorial Day Weekend 2011

    We are salty and dry from a day spent with sidewalk chalk, under the hot-hot sun, in dresses and shorts, grilling steaks and planting.
    The house is warm because the screens are in and the huge windows are open wide, and only just now a smooth breeze is coming through to tell us about evening.
    The speakers have been on high all day, so we could hear our folksy tunes outside.
    The dog is exhausted, the girls are chatty, summer nightgowns are going on over powdered bellies.
    We clapped, gave thumbs-ups to and said thank you to our service men and women today, while watching a short and loud parade, and we danced in the park with friends. Some of us rolled down hills, and everyone under 4 feet picked armfuls of dandelions.
    One of us happened upon a local race today and joined in, finishing the initial run with a burst of friends and energy.
    This old Victorian looks and feels like a cottage, with shoes and chalk and food and toys everywhere.
    We are missing our cousins, who for 48 hours were the most important people on earth, and with whom we made those holiday kind of memories.
    We ate our snack of prunes on the porch and shooed ants while waving at the resorters, who think we must be new in town.
    We bonded with the new family up the block, whose children were covered in chocolate ice cream and had full diapers, but no one cared enough to stop the impromptu playdate.
    Our feet are exhausted but our heads are dancing with the promise of sand and lake, summer and sunshine, every day.