I may have said this before...

You know what I love? Airports. Perhaps you think of them as that place where they make you take off your shoes and where they disconnect you from too many of your personal belongings at once and tell you repeatedly in a fairly robotic voice over the loud speaker to please not take anything from anyone before getting on your flight. But to me they are one long hallway, a couple doors, a few agents, an overhead bin, and one tiny soda away from anywhere, which just thrills me every time I'm there. (Which isn't that often - which perhaps is obvious now).

I was there late last night to pick up a friend. It's about a 3-hour drive for me, and I thrilled to every single minute on the road. I listened to the Shall We Dance soundtrack and got all kinds of inspiration for that novel I mentioned in the last post. Which was very nostalgic because I was on a drive to the airport the first time I got a specific idea about that book. It was a conversation - well, a question and then an answer - between two characters. I pulled over and scribbled it down even though at the time I didn't even have a book to build around it.

Last night I discovered another conversation those characters should have. It refers to the first, and I liked it so much, I welled. I hope it's indicative of my nearness to finishing the first draft that on this drive the conversation I planned belongs at the END.

So the three hours to the airport were all me and "Moon River" and the image of my character standing in front of her dream life, knowing she could maybe actually get it after all. It was heavenly. And then the three hours home were nonstop conversation with a friend, which everyone knows is the perfect balance to nonstop creative illusions with your self.

Then I came home to husband and children tucked sweetly in bed, the promise of a three-day weekend, and the confidence that not even the 32-ounce cup of caffeine I'd had for the drive home would keep me from falling happily to sleep about two seconds after I hit the pillow. That. Was a good day.

This morning we wrote thank you notes to teachers and picked giant pink rhododendrons from the bush out front, because it's the very last day of school. I'm looking forward to a long weekend, a workless Monday, and then a new routine. I like summer. I like how much easier it is to get my hours in (of work) when I don't lose an hour traveling to and from school. I like taking the boys to the library during the day and baseball games at night. I like the extra sunshine and the feeling that even though grownups don't technically get one, it is totally summer vacation.

I hope you get a little of that feeling this weekend. Happy Memorial Day from serenity now.