Snapshots from a Saturday of Simple Joys

--Yesterday on my drive to spin class, I heard two stories, back to back, on NPR's Weekend Edition.  They made me happy to be an English major and grateful for my years of teaching, which solidified that knowledge.

--The first story was about the revival of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie.  It sounds like a fabulous production.

--At one point, the discussion turned to Tom's possible homosexuality.  What does it say about me that I never read him as gay?  I understood the mother's shock and horror at his late-night drinking and his restless inability to just stay put in the house.  It never occurred to me that there might be more.

--Ah, to be close to Broadway, with its current revivals of Tennessee Williams, Samuel Beckett, and Harold Pinter, and of course, Shakespeare. 

--But ordinary working folks like me can't afford tickets.  So maybe it's good that I'm far away.

--That story was followed by this piece about T. S. Eliot's "The Wasteland."  It's a great story that talks about High Modernism in both literature and the visual arts.  It took me back to my days studying for Ph.D. comps, reading "The Waste Land" once a week, hoping to understand it enough to reference it.  I love that time period between the world wars and the British works that emerge.

--Did I come home and dive back into my Norton anthology?  No I did not.  I worked on a short story that I WILL send off to Glimmer Train today.

--My work has nothing in common with those High Modernist works.  I am not James Joyce, nor was meant to be.

--My spouse and I spent part of the afternoon at the Home Depot.  We've been spending a lot of time in home improvement stores lately. But yesterday was more fun:  we bought flowers.

--Once upon a time, I'd have turned up my nose at flowers.  I was young and judgmental.  I only wanted art that was functional, like quilting.  I only wanted plants that served as food.

--I decided to live recklessly. I bought flowers that might only last a season. 

--I decorated the house a bit for autumn, along with my Halloween tablecloth and napkins.  Perhaps I will post pictures later this week.

--I'm tempted to buy more decorations for this new house.  But where would I store them later?

--No, I shall wait patiently.  Our church has a pumpkin sale that will start Oct. 13 (if you're a local reader, it's Trinity Lutheran Church, at 72nd Avenue and Pines, by the south campus of Broward College).  I don't usually buy pumpkins for the porch, but this year, I'll give it a try.  Will they last until Halloween?  My porch is shady, unlike my last porch.

--My sneering younger self would not approve of disposable decorations, like pumpkins.  But I'll support the church, and the pumpkins will give me joy for the time that they're here.  And then I won't have to store them until next year.

--Meanwhile, it's still summer down here.  After doing yard work and flower planting, we relaxed by the pool.  We had grilled swordfish steaks for dinner.

--We ended our day with vanilla ice cream.  What a simple joy.  I don't usually have vanilla ice cream all by itself; I have it as a topping for pie or cobbler.  It was delicious!

--Our Saturday of simple joys was a great way to celebrate our return to being a couple who's only responsible for one property.  As my spouse said in the Home Depot parking lot, "We'll see how long that lasts."  For much of our property-owning lives, we've had at least 2 properties; in fact, since 1993, when we bought our first house, we've only had 4 years when we owned just one house.  

 --Can my Saturday of simple joys lead to a Sunday of simple joys?  I think it can!