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The Secret Hour
By Stephanie Kemp







May 29th

It is 6am, but feels earlier.  Adam is in the mountains, the sky is gray, my girls are sleeping (in!) and I can’t wait for the coffee to finish cooking.

I woke myself up from a mush dream and moved over to the other side of the bed only to realize that Adam has a better view of the canyon and that every day would be better if I kicked it off with a few bed based snow angels to start up the parts.  

At 4:45 the birds held a protest and I thought about joining them, but fell back to sleep after hearing a few rounds of COME ON COME ON COME ON and their avian cover of the Brady Bunch Cousin Oliver music cues.

Heaven.

We had the best night. It was exactly what I hoped it would be and needed.

Yesterday was Olivia’s last day of finals and Frances didn’t have dance (and doesn’t have finals - ?), so we want into old town to walk around and window shop and have dinner outside.

Everything their choice, 65 and sunny with happy people and street music in the (not too) busy small town Friday night, full of real talks and laughter.

Having survived a pandemic, (knock wood, please god, masks still on but with less commitment) I decided we deserved a little more than just windows, so they each picked out a few summer things:  a beautiful skirt that Frances could even wear to mom’s funeral (the thought of this funeral only brings happiness now, a full year later), a soft cotton color block sleep shirt that Olivia will still fit into when she gets into RISD (optimism for everyone!), a one pot vegetarian cook book (deliciousness tbd, but we need to eat more vegetables no matter what), a tiny gold mirror for Liv’s bulletin board (we can see our whole faces again!) and some nostalgic Sephora sparkle that reminded us of Jennie (will call her today!), Mom (can’t wait to see everyone) and that we need to take care of our skin (especially me, but it’s never too early to start).

We had dinner outside at Kabuki (their choice, but I was in solid support). Kicked off the festivities with “specialty” drinks (did I start that? Not very lovely), spicy tuna on crispy rice apps (they were delighted that I didn’t want any so they could have two each), ramen for them and hibachi rice with their unwanted side salads for me. Extra delicious because Adam wasn’t there reminding us that/but “Ramen Tatsunoya is right down the street!” (Although, he would’ve loved the tempura green tea ice cream balls both girls ordered for dessert and I would’ve loved having him with us and might even have shared a tiny bit of my second glass of wine.)

I was a happy spy, watching the girls move through a normal night out in the world, even though I wish it could have included a posse of their friends. That will come.  The posses will resurface. The kids will be alright, despite the pandemic, the social upheaval, the planet revolting, and the Republican Party (separate essay). The parents (at least this one - last night) will take  deep breaths and be grateful for a Friday night that made everything feel better, just by its familiar rhythms and recognizability. We are so lucky. That was the best part of the night, seeing O+F have fun while knowing that they know we are so lucky.  

I am grateful.

The only down sides to the night were that Olivia didn’t buy a tiny plant that she loved before the store closed and that Sephora didn’t have the fancy concealer that was perfect for my somewhat sallow current under eye skin tone.  

She was sad until I told her we could grab the plant today.

I was sad until I realized that my current skin tone should not be concealed, especially when that money could go to a few one pot vegetarian dinners that will likely improve it and help keep the world spinning now that we are feeling a little more optimistic.

And have survived a pandemic.

Coffee’s ready.


ps.  This just in from the husband:

Good one….but the ps to add would be that I don’t think the green tea ice cream tempura is good at Kabuki!!! But otherwise perfect…..love you guys.

pps.  (potential) wine sharing offer (potentially permanently) reneged.