we haven’t hosted a party in over a year, and suddenly we are going to be party hosts two weekends in a row. last weekend it was the wine tasting for our french friends, which was lovely but exhausting. this next weekend we are hosting the after prom party, which should be unlovely and exhausting. i have just been informed that it will begin, not end but begin, at midnight, and that parental circulation among the revelers will be tolerated but discouraged. meanwhile we will be responsible for twenty hormonal high schoolers, and answerable to their parents. i’m officially ready to resume my daily walk with one single neurotic dog for company.

a handful of my front yard: lily, fern, virginia creeper, hosta, clover, daffodil

saint paul, minnesota