Like a lovely diamond necklace in the dark...

The days are getting shorter now, and I've started riding my bike at night. The streets look so different in the dark, and it makes me notice things that I never notice during the day. Smells seem to be stronger at night (I guess because there isn't as much to distract you from them) and all the flowers in our neighborhood are like a heady perfume. I love riding past the houses with their windows lit, they look so cozy and peaceful. Tonight I saw two front yards that still had sprinklers running in them, and they were really beautiful. The water shone in the streetlights and the drops were like beads on a shiny beaded necklace.

I love how I feel when I'm out riding my bike. I love the way my legs move when I pedal, "wallowing up the sidewalk," as Anne Sexton once put it. It makes me feel powerful, for some reason, and lately I've been thinking that I need to take that feeling with me when I go on job interviews. I have another one tomorrow morning, and I've also found a temporary job in the mall (it probably won't last more than a few days, but it's better than nothing).

Mom was in town last weekend, and she insisted on celebrating my birthday while she was here. I won't go into details, but I will say that it was even worse than what happened last year, and it ended with Mom telling me and Sara to "get out of my house now." Grandma and Aunt Carla want to take me out to dinner on my actual birthday, which I'm really looking forward to.