The Summer Blues

Sometimes my family leaves for the weekend to go visit a brother and a nephew in Idaho who I desperately miss. Sometimes I have to stay home alone because I had committed to standing on a float, wearing a ridiculous outfit, and waving to and smiling at people I don't even know. However, I wasn't too upset about this because I really enjoy having the house to myself. (I know. I'm a terrible, awful person for admitting that). So up until now, I didn't complain about being left behind. Then I started to feel really lonely. How, you may ask, could I feel lonely when I have spent the most perfect weekend with my darling best friend? Well you see, there are many factors.
1. I am tired. It was my first week of real work at RISE. I had absolutely no idea what I was in for physically, mentally, and emotionally. Don't get me wrong, I love it. But working long days (several being twelve hours), either in the heat of the afternoon or the sweatshop of the un-airconditioned cleaners, took it out of me.
2. I feel ill. No need to ask why.
3. I am hungry. After eating ham and cheese hotpockets and brown sugar pop tarts for essentially every meal this week, I have had enough. Is real food too much to ask for? (On the bright side my freezer is stocked to the hilt with ice cream. And no one is here to tell me that I've had more than my fair share).
4. Sometimes one person, the person whose attention or company you would like most, forgets about you. And that is the worst of all.

And then this bad combination of tired-sicky-hungry-needy Aubrey is sent a picture by her sister that makes her weep. Because I realize my nephew is growing up without me and I may have missed my one chance to see him this summer.



Sometimes, when I am feeling lonely, a good, inspired friend leaves a surprise on my doorstep.



Sometimes the surprise is a hand-me-down shirt of hers that I always really admired. So I will wear it tonight. And the sun is a little brighter, the sky a little bluer, and the world a little nicer.