golden

Is five days too long to go without posting? Is that rude to the people who check my blog on a regular basis? Am I being totally full of myself to think people care that much if they don't hear about my life for a few days? My guess is "yes," but while you ponder that for a few minutes, I'm going to tell you about my day.

Today was about as close as you can get to a Perfect Day. Not The Perfect Day, because luckily there are many kinds of perfection and therefore many opportunities to experience it. The Perfect Day would be depressing in a way, because its end would suggest nothing but downhillness to come. But I digress.

The perfection of the day sort of began yesterday. A wonderful friend and former coworker came to visit on his way to a indie-Jews-hanging-out-in-the-woods thing in New Hampshire. I drove down to Hartford to pick him up and we enjoyed the intermittent and unfortunate lack of air-conditioning in my car (for which I will hopefully be on Car Talk soon; stay tuned) all the way back to Brattleboro.

We went to the People's Pint in Greenfield, a lovely local institution famous for excellent beer and slooooow service, for a great dinner, took a walk around town in the cooling twilight, and then went to the contra dance. It was my friend's first time, and of course he loved it (not because everyone loves it, but because I was pretty sure he would, and YAY! he did). (Quote after Friend's first contra dance: "I don't remember the last time I was in a room with so many people who were all smiling.") Then we came home and slept really really well because that is what dancing does to you.

Today, the official Perfect part, we awoke to insanely beautiful weather and walked downtown for brunch at a place I've wanted to try ever since I moved here (and it was as good as everyone says it is). Then we walked around, wandered into the few open galleries we could find, browsed in the used bookstores, walked across the river in order to experience the magic that is walking to another state, and then got hooked on the idea of renting a canoe and paddling on the Connecticut for a while before we had to leave to drive him to New Hampshire.

So we came home to gather things, Friend managed to resolve (in about 45 seconds) my lack of wireless internet access that's been driving me nuts for months, and then we went and rented a canoe and spent a fabulous hour and a half paddling up the Connecticut River and back down again. This was the first time I've actually gone to the canoe rental place and figured out what the deal is, and oh boy will I be back there. (Kayaks, here I come.)

After all that and a snack stop at the food coop, we drove down the little state route in New Hampshire toward the indie Jews, stopping at a roadside produce stand to buy fresh-picked peaches and green beans for a whole $3. And on the way back I stopped and went blueberry picking, because this is the height of the season and it was still a cloudless gorgeous day and a little voice said, go pick lots of blueberries and share them with your friends.

And THEN, as if all that weren't enough, I went to Greenfield (yet again) to learn a song with my friend the Renaissance Man, because we are going to surprise someone with it as his wedding next weekend, and instead of just learning a song and sharing some blueberries I was fed a delicious dinner and nourished by food and friendship and Ireland photos and general wonderfulness. Then I played blueberry fairy to some other friends who were apparently asleep already by the time I dropped by, and now I'm home again, up way too late because a) I now have wireless internet again, which means being able to be online in bed, b) I wanted to share this story, and c) if I go to sleep, the day will end.

Which brings to mind a lovely quote I heard recently, that "You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by. Yes, but some of them are golden only because we let them slip."*

I guess I'm writing this post mostly for me, so that I can let these hours slip, give in and go to bed, but look back to them later in the week when things are crazy and busy and stressful again, as they are wont to be these days. But I'm also writing it for you, so that you'll have more than enough to read even if I don't post for a few more days because of said busyness and stress.

(And if you live around here, ask me how to find the blueberry place.)

*J.M. Barrie, best known for writing Peter Pan