Someday

Someday I want to live near the beach. I want to have babies that wake me up and tell me that they want to go play in the water, so we will pack up baskets and tote bags and start the barefoot walk down cobbled streets and sandy boardwalks, and set up umbrellas to lounge in the warm air.

I want to head home when it gets too hot, late in the afternoon, and I want to stop on the way to get mint chocolate chip ice cream cones, because everyone knows you can only eat mint chocolate chip in the summer. Or maybe rainbow sherbet. But never one scoop of each, because that is a terrible mixture.

I want to have backyard barbecues with dozens of friends, and tiki torches that stay lit late into the night, and hear the whispers of children who are supposed to be asleep but who just can't drift off because the excitement of life has them too full of energy.

I have no idea where in the world this beach is located, or how many years into the future this glimpse is, but I dream about it like it has already happened. I can taste cold, drippy watermelon on the back porch, and hear birds chirping through open windows in the spring.

In reality, summer has hit. The Sprocket and I bid Daddy farewell in the mornings and then watch the world get toasted outside our back windows. He sticks his head out the dog door to survey the world, only to draw it back in when he discovers that the sun singes his mass of black fur. He retreats to the bedroom to nap again, hoping that when he wakes it will be eighty degrees and he can go outside in peace. We need to take him up the mountain to visit his Grandparents so he can run amok (his favorite activity) without burning his little paws.

In honor of summer, the boy and I must go buy a king sized bed. These two things sound completely unrelated, but when you feel like nothing in the world can make you any hotter and you lie down on crisp, cool sheets to relax, touching someone else's hot leg can put a serious crimp in your style. Sometimes the boy and I will accidentally touch in the middle of the night, and you would think that one of us is electrically charged by the way that each of us jump away in pain. We originally wanted to try and hold out until we moved, but the universe has plans to keep us in our current house a little longer than we originally thought, so it appears we will have to move a new bed in before moving out.

And in housing news, there is none. We put one offer on a place we liked, but quickly got into a bidding war and were out-auctioned by someone with cash. We haven't found much else that we LOVE, so we're going to keep looking and start to include short sales in our hunts because that is what at least 90% of the listings in our area are. I feel terribly guilty looking at beautiful homes still occupied by their original owners when I know that they paid $400,000 for their house and are now selling it for one third of that.

I would hate to be them, but I'd also hate to stay in this rental for one day longer than I have to, so onward we go...