And here is where I'm supposed to go into detail about these house plans, about the process, about what you might expect when you see them. But, oh, when your writing window of the morning is nearly closed already, and when the words are skittering out of sight like ferral cats, leaving you with nothing but punctuation marks to work with, all because there's this thing coming up called a 'plans release' and it's making you do all sorts of technical, internet-y things that are distinctly outside your realm of ability, and those things are eating up your time in big, slobbery gulps, it's just hard to get your head unstuck over there and plug it in here and make it sound intelligent.
Boy.
Did that make sense?
And then all you want to do is knit that blue cowl you've been working on since mid-December. With earbuds in your ears, listening to this.
But, at least I get to go out to breakfast this morning. Seeing as how it's Wednesday and all. Different boy, different parent, each Wednesday, at the Branding Iron.
How's that for the name of a restaurant in Wyoming?
We'll be there, that oldest boy and I, for our Branding Iron Breakfast. I'm not sure there could be a better time in the week for such and event. Right in the middle, just when you need a boost. When it's our turn, we spend the preceding days anticipating, carefully laying our plan for food, for drink, for which tiny jelly should be used on our toast first. We pre-select our order from the plastic menu in our minds.
When we arrive, there'll be the faithful gray-haired crowd, already assembled with coffee mugs half-drank, and one of them will look up and say, "It must be Wednesday." And we'll say yes and good morning as we cross the uneven floor and choose which slanted table to sit at this time, one by a window for sure.
I'll order the #2, because that's what I always do - two eggs over-easy, hash browns with ranch dressing on the side, four slices of bacon, no toast. The boy of the day will order a BLT. I know. You never know what teenagers will come up with. I mean, the idea of switching breakfast for lunch? I shake my head. He said he's going the BLT route because their biscuits and gravy aren't nearly as good as mine. Heartmeltmoment. Then I reminded him that it's he who made the biscuits and gravy the last two times we've had them, so, technically, it's his own cooking he's in love with.
He'll pound the BLT, then want another, I'm sure of it. Because the first one was just an appetizer (and now we're talking about appetizers for breakfast, oh my).
And we'll talk about whatever. Probably about running and the first indoor track meet that's coming up, and the track spikes he just bought with his own money (we won't mention the replacement spikes that he unknowingly ordered from the UK, that are coming by Royal Mail from across the pond). I'm sure we'll talk about the fact that he now carries that hard plastic card in his wallet, the one with his picture on it that he somehow thinks gives him permission to drive that Jeep to practice and back. Yeah, that. He comes home every evening with a grin stretched clear across his face.
And we grin back when he walks through the door, his dad & I, relieved that he's home in one piece, because just moments before, we were serious parents - brows stitched up tight, checking clocks and watches every 2 seconds, looking out the window for round Jeep lights every three (even though he's not late), going over the emergency contingency plan in our heads, following the road he drives in our minds, noting those tricky spots where the snow tends to drift, where the corners are sharp (parents of first-time drivers, you know what I mean). Then, he walks in the door all smiles, and we're suddenly all smiles, too, and he has no idea how many deaths we just died while waiting for him to come home.
Friends, there's a whole lot of day ahead.
But first, breakfast.
P.S. That picture there? It has nothing to do with Branding Iron Breakfasts. It has everything to do with winter, and a mountain river, and an afternoon of spontaneity. I told all about it on Instagram yesterday.