The last half of summer and the transition into fall happen to be my absolute favorite time of the year. More specifically, I love the days in between the Fourth of July and Halloween. Warm summer nights chasing fireflies, the first days of a new school year, football games, leaves swirling in an autumn wind-- all of these things make for some of the happiest moments of my year.
I know most people love the holidays, and they’re nice and all, but there is just something to be said about fresh pasta sauce from the tomatoes in the garden and apple pie and ice cream transitioning to pecan and pumpkin pie with homemade whipped cream.
Yeah, I could ramble on like this forever.
Jason and I took time out of our day yesterday evening to have dinner! In a restaurant! By OURSELVES! A friend of mine took me to dinner at Bangkok Gardens last summer—when it was still just me in town and I was very lonely—and since then Jason and I have gone three more times. He loves it there: my husband, who used to despise any eastern foods despite Americanized Chinese buffets. There’s an Indian restaurant in town that he will be trying soon. He’s never had Indian food before, which seems crazy to me, since I was the one who had a much more sheltered, insular, small town childhood.
This act of going out to dinner still seems so new to me, even though we’ve tried to do this once a month since he was hired last October. In St. Louis there was not enough money, not enough time, and I did not feel comfortable leaving the children alone together in the house for any length of time.
When everything in town is ten minutes away, tops, it makes life much easier. It also helps that our children are older, and that there is a little extra cash each month, as we continue to dig ourselves out of the hole from years past. Yet, mostly, it’s the atmosphere of Columbia that really does it for me. Columbia shouts “Slow down! Take your time! Enjoy yourself! Have some fun for a change!” in a way that took some getting used to.
Free concerts in the park, little league, ice cream runs at dark, my husband coming home dirty from pottery class, the feel of my feet in my old, rosined, ballet slippers on a well-worn dance floor, freezing theaters playing blockbusters on sweltering days. This is what my sweetest memories will be made of. I just bask in the wonderment of knowing that when my children are grown, I will look back on these days, and remember how avidly observant Kyle is and how generous and open Ant is.
How lucky am I? How often do we know right there, in the moment, that we are looking at some of the best times of our life?
P.S. Go to Bangkok Gardens and get the spring rolls and the dumpling soup.
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