Friday, Feb. 17, 2023 @ 10:23 am
Weekday Notes
On Valentine’s Day, we sat together in our apartment and watched the sunset, drinking a bottle of champagne that I’d been given a couple of months ago with explicit instructions to not save. I uncorked the bottle on the balcony, my bare feet cold against the damp concrete, and poured the champagne into thrifted crystal coupes that I’d purchased on a cold winter evening long ago, back when I lived up North. I remember the night that I brought the set of crystal glassware home, proud of the find. Two dollars per glass! And clinking them together to hear the clear, distinctive ring. I’d never tasted real champagne at the time, and I’ve only had it a few times in my life even now, but I set something in motion that night while wandering the aisles of Valu Village.
**
I’m on the train commuting home. The train doors open at a stop, and people move out then into the car like an ocean wave. The train is crowded.
A man with ragged clothes stands beside me then utters, “Lady f*#k off!”
I turn to look at him. I blink. What did he just say?
I pull out my headphones, walk three paces away from him, and watch him from a safer distance.
He turns to another woman.
“Lady f*#k off!”
She grips her bag and walks away from him.
I hold my phone, poised to call transit security, until my stop arrives. When the train pulled into my station, I got off and went on with my day. The man a blip in the course of my life. Is he a danger to others? In this city, at this point in time, we have to constantly make decisions about when to act and when to let things be, about whose safety is more at risk.
**
We were on the couch together one night, talking and cuddling, and he said something that made me laugh. I was laughing so hard that my body hurt and tears formed at the corners of my eyes. I fell onto the floor, curled into a ball, holding my aching stomach, laughing and laughing until finally the wave passed.
There are times when I feel sad that we’ve moved beyond the honeymoon phase, but then there are moments like this of goofing around with my best friend that make me realize that there is pure, joyful happiness at all relationship stages when you’re with the right person.
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