Saturday, October 29, 2016

This Girl

This girl made this man a father at 23. And at the time, I thought he and I were older. I thought those years meant more.

But he was just a kid. And so was I. We were playing grown up, with a baby passed between our hips.

So that girl grew up with us.

And we are here now.

She stays by his side, as they try to make each other laugh, plan the novels they are both going to write in November.

She is so much his daughter. She taught him how to be a dad.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Visiting Our Friends' Farm

For five hours, the kids ran through her house, around her yard. They bounded on to the trampoline. Tucked away in the shed turned playhouse. They played hide-and-seek, forgetting Sena for dozens of minutes. They chalked away on the sidewalk leading to a perfect, red front door.

Meanwhile, Jen baked cookies while I picked her brain. She showed me the children's book that is nearing completion. I peeked around her house, reveling in it's weirdness. "My spirit animal is a thirteen year-old goth kid," she laughs. And since that is who she was when I met her, it seems blatantly obvious. What was far more surprising was hearing her claim that Tim McGraw's show was the best she's ever been to.

My friend: artist, mother, wife, barista, homesteader, closeted country music lover.