The other night I awoke to Troy leaning over me and gently grabbing my face in a very specific and terrifying way.  It turns out he thought I was cloth that he needed to tell one of his stories at work. The next morning I headed over to the Montessori School to drop off Troy’s guitar that didn’t make it with him on the 6:30AM bike ride. I walked into his classroom for the first time ever and was introduced to his students who gazed at me lovingly.  One asked for my autograph, which meant signing “Troy’s Wife” on a piece of white paper that she carried around the rest of the day (and apparently displayed it in her art showing yesterday).  Another child said, “I can’t believe there’s a real live wife in here.”  I used to say it in New York and now I’ll say it in Fayetteville: It’s not always easy being married to a celebrity.  As I type these words Mr. Troy is on his way to the Farmer’s Market with his green guitar Pesto to sing some ditties to his miniature fans.  Huck and I opted to stay home away from all the fame and organic vegetables.

Last Saturday we had a big day celebrating a birthday and beginning to say goodbye to three of our favorite Fayettevillians who are about to move away.  Later today we have a cookout with some more favorites.  More often than not these days I find myself with a bunch of new friends and realize that somewhere along the way over these past 12 months they’ve morphed into feeling like old friends. It’s the magic of time and good people, I guess.  A few days ago I sat down to pre-re-enroll Huck for fourth grade on the computer.  Around page 85 it came time to list our emergency contacts, and before I knew it I was writing down our dear New York friends Russell’s and Cheryl’s names and phone numbers.  Why would I do that?  Because they’re moving to Fayetteville next month!  We are about to have two of our dearest and oldest friends live in our town, and there aren’t too many words I can find to express our happiness except these: They are Huck’s emergency contacts!

Lastly, the boy and I spent last week with my sweet parents while Troy stayed behind and worked.  Grandma and Grandpa spoiled us with lots of love and fun including the water park in 105 degree weather and watermelon and canasta and coffee outings and antique shopping and library visiting and sculpture making and school clothes shopping. Little did we know while waking up on our last Kansas morning Troy’s bike brakes stopped working as he flew down the extremely steep Rockwood Trail on his way to work, causing him to throw himself and his bike hard onto the grass.  Huck and I made our six hour drive home safe and sound, only to be side-swiped the next day on a narrow little street by a very nice person who took full responsibility and whose insurance company is slowly assessing the situation.  I am a mostly happy person by nature with a deep sense of anxiety and fear, and having two near accidents happen to me and my family in two days makes me feel like the universe just may be out to get us.  Thankfully we ended the day with a moonlight swim and the hope of a better tomorrow.

So far so good.