Confession

I love summer drives.

Out amongst the country roads, drive-ways full of dust and weeds. Cars lining the available space, patio lanterns strung out into the trees. Coolers of beer. Wood smoke drifting out over the low slung weeping willows. Music wafting along with it.

I miss my family. (My extended family as well, the ones lost to divorce.) I think I need to grow up and quit relying on family for entertainment… or husbands for that matter.

The last outdoor party I went to, we drank too many mojitos in the sun. I think I was tipsy by dinner, which we ate out under umbrellas, pressing our napkins between our knees so that they would not blow away.

My favorite outdoor gatherings were on the island at my ex “Aunt and Uncle-In-Laws”. They have property on the lip of a pretty little valley, the sun slanting in late afternoon to the front deck where we would eat under the candelabras hung in the big beams. Then later, sit and watch the sun sink into the ocean, glass in hand… music drifting out of the open windows. It was a house made for family, for parties… for dinner guests and for laughter. Ironically, it was built during prohibition, by a man who made his money smuggling booze for such parties.

I think the thing that makes my heart keep coming back like a lost puppy to a warm hand, is the laughter. Oh, and then later, the guitar brought out to serenade the bats. Sparks in the night sky. Sleepy conversations.

Or maybe it’s that feeling of being on holidays. Lazy. Where a drive down a country road is an adventure of the sweetest kind.

Is that a corn stand?

G.