I Am Waiting For The Queen

A sudden knock on the driver’s window surprises me and I turn to see a middle aged lady waiting for me to respond.

I roll down the window and she asks me what I am doing to which I respond, “I am waiting for the queen..”

She tells me she doesn’t want me waiting there and that decent people live in the neighborhood and I realize I am about to become that guy in the Nextdoor thread.

I haven’t been there more than a couple of minutes and only pulled over so that I could safely respond to an email. Her manner has irked me so I give her a big smile and respond again.

“Surely the decent people who live here are subjects of the queen who would not want me texting and driving. The smart thing to do is not bang on the windows of strange men who are likely just passing through.”

That motivates her to encourage me to leave which motivates me to ask her if she would like me to call the police because she is harassing me.

“You are stranger parked in public neighborhood for no reason.”

I cut her off and tell her she used the operative word, ‘public’ and that I don’t owe her an explanation. I wish her a good day and roll up my window.

When I hear her start babbling at me I lift my phone as if I am going to record her and then I feel something hit me in the side.

Turns out I have been napping on the couch and 22 pounds of dog has jumped on my side and is busy making himself comfortable for his own nap.

Dreams, Fantasies & Stuff You Keep To Yourself

Put together a post called Everyday I Write For You and thought about whether I might take it down and rewrite it.

Something from the Saturday afternoon dream has me thinking that I could insert I am waiting for the queen into it as part of a whole another chapter.

Haven’t done it yet because I got distracted by other stuff and because I am mulling over whether I like the tone of I am waiting for the queen.

It was perfect in the dream, right mix of snark and insouciance but it reads/sounds differently while I am awake.

Not a surprise really because dreams don’t have to follow any logic, reason or reality. They can be any damn thing your mind wants them to be.

It is how the dead sometimes walk and talk with us. They appear in our dreams and say/do anything.

Some people debate whether they are real representatives from the afterlife or just figments of our desires but not me.

I remain agnostic about it.

My dad and grandfathers have shown up multiple times in my dreams. I can’t say they have ever said or done anything that I couldn’t have easily imagined them doing based upon how well I know/knew them.

Can’t say they have shared information with me that I can definitively say they should not have known about though I have looked skyward and asked for the winning Powerball numbers.

Since I rarely play I can’t say for certain they did or did not give them to me but I haven’t ever had a burning urge to buy a ticket because I was sure I was going to win.

And to be clear there are things I say I know will happen because I just know. Doesn’t happen often but sometimes…

Epilogue- Al Fresco

Dad’s yahrzheit starts tomorrow night and maybe I’ll silently tell him about how I told someone my name is Al Fresco and that I am a contractor who builds outdoor dining areas.

Will definitely spend a few minutes thinking about him and how he would appreciate some of what I have been doing to get his youngest granddaughter ready for heading off to college.

It is kind of surreal to say my baby is 18 now but that thought presses up against when my grandfather told me how strange it was when my mom turned 60.

“You can’t imagine what it is like when your baby is 60.”

Grandpa held my wrist as he said those words and I laughed and asked him if he thought I was going to run away.

That was a common gesture for him, something he did to most of us. When he was sharing something important he would grab a hold of you.

Grandpa laughed and said he would let go because he didn’t want me to drag him across the floor.

Then he looked at me and said he hoped I got to experience that moment of realizing my baby was turning 60.

“Josh, you always know how old you are but you don’t really feel old until you realize your youngest is 60. It is not a bad thing, it is a good thing. But it really makes you realize the world has changed just a little bit.”