Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Monday, May 2, 2011

ON WANTING TO HAVE THREE WALLS UP BEFORE SHE GETS HOME

"He is building a small house in the backyard for when their baby is old enough to use it as a fort or clubhouse or getaway, and he wants to have three walls up before his wife gets home. She is at her mother's house because her mother has slipped on the ice--a skating party, Christmas-themed--and needs help with preparations for her holiday party planned before the accident. It's snowing lightly and the air is cold enough to see. He is working on the house with a new drill he has bought that day. It's a portable drill and he marvels at its effeciency. He wants to prove something to his wife, because he doesn't build things like this often, and she has implied that she likes it when he does build things, and when he goes biking or plays rugby in the men's league. She was impressed when he assembled a telescope, a birthday gift, in two hours, when the manual had said it would take four. So when she's gone during this day, and the air is grey and dense and the snow falls like ash, he works quickly, trying to get the foundation done. Once he's finished with foundation, he decides that to impress her--and he wants to impress her in some way every day and wants always to want to impress her--he will need at least three walls up on the house by the time she gets home."

Sunday, May 1, 2011

My friends say stick to your guns, but instead I just got stuck



"That's nice. It's nice to have someone worry about you."