monday morning

Monday morning commute with Boo. Heading back to Palo Alto after long glorious weekend in San Francisco filled with friends old and new, sunlight, dog love, wind-whipped sand, golden pork buns, hot professional lezzies. Highway 101 South is a parking lot but I don't care. Blasting Erasure greatest hits all the way to work, windows down. Boo sniffs for a while, then tires and falls asleep. I'm wearing a black suit, white shirt for tomorrow's depo. I'm dressed like the border collie in the backseat.

I drop Boo off in the backyard of my parents' home and drive the remaining 1.5 miles to work. More slow traffic. Left arm out the window baking to a deeper color than the right, heart-shaped sunglasses, singing Erasure's cover of ABBA's "Take A Chance On Me" as loud as I can. Nodding and grooving. Day is bright in the valley, with fog at the top of the Santa Cruz mountains. Man in forest green SUV pulls short of the light so that our windows are aligned. I look down my sunglasses at him. He looks down his sunglasses at me. He drives off craning his neck backwards. We meet again at the next light. He rolls down the window. I'm singing, "If you change your mind / I'm the first in line / Honey I'm still free / Take a chance on me . . . " He shouts, "HEY DO YOU WANT TO GET COFFEE!?" I keep singing and shake my head and hold up my left ring finger. Wag it at him, smiling. Take an abrupt right on my street and never see him again.

This week is gonna be GOOD.