Dawn said there’s a cheaper treatment for lice, where you just put mayonnaise on your head and tie it off in a bag and then wait a couple hours, and they die from the oils. I learned about the Oxford comma today and the fact that Microsoft employs that in their style guide, which is something. Charlotte got me to agree to two family-sized boxes of Lucky Charms and a box of pop tarts before she’d go camping with me. Each time the dog scratches it makes me itch too, to watch her strum her side. By 1 PM, I knew I needed more coffee but refrained. I did a lap around the parking lot instead but the UV always makes my glasses dark and then it’s obvious I’ve been outside while at work, and I worry it looks fishy. So I sit in the lobby for a while killing time, but it doesn’t change back fast enough.

I agreed to get Lily at the Safeway with her friend Kylie, and met Lily’s boyfriend Will. Kylie had hands painted on the backs of her legs and I wondered if they’d get on the insides of my car. I played The Smiths driving back and somehow agreed to let Kylie sleep over. They made grilled cheese in the kitchen and I tried to insulate myself, in the den. Lily came out to tell me about some kids who threw a rock at a window of a store in the Highlands and got arrested, and they probably know some of those kids and I said, you’re talking really loud (and I’m trying to write).

It’s June 1st, and that means the summer will go fast. By the time we get to the solstice it’s already headed to fall, and this morning I imagined how it would feel, that first day it turns and the dew comes down on the grass, and somehow I love knowing it’s going to end because time is scarce, it’s better that way.

Categories: parenting, prose, writing

Tags: humor, pacific northwest, parenting, prose, stream-of-consciousness, suburbs, William Pearse writer