Monday, November 9, 2009

This and that

It's a beautiful day, but it's not an Afton Station day, so I'm going to post a few photos I've taken in the past week that really don't have much to do with anything in particular, but I like them.

First, here's that leg lamp in Chelsea I photographed a few weeks ago. The other morning I drove past it before the sun came up, so I got a shot of it all lit up. I love leg lamps!


I spotted this in the back yard of a house in Afton. I have no idea if it's operational, but I doubt it. I love the ancient washing machine next to it.

Oh yeah, just another breakfast picture. This is the incredible French toast at the Buttered Bun in Miami. Warning: Get a half order. The full order is impossible to finish!

This is the Dairy King in Commerce. Remember the guy who stopped in to Afton Station this summer to show us the Route 66 cookies he "invented"? Well, it's good to see that he's advertising the yummy cookies prominently on his ice cream stand, which is in an old gas station.


And now, I'm going to talk to myself for a while. . .

I was listening to Rosie O’Donnell’s new radio show this morning on Sirius XM, and she was asking the question, “What was the greatest day of your life?” People were responding with the usual -- wedding day, the day a child was born, etc. It suddenly occurred to me that I don’t have the slightest idea what was the best day of my life. I like to think I haven’t had it yet, but I probably have. Odd moments come to mind. Of course both my wedding day and the day Sarah was born were momentous occasions, but on those days I was a bit too preoccupied to really be able to properly enjoy them. (Wedding stress and 36 hours of hard labor will do that to you.) I recall a day when I was a sophomore in college and it was a spring Friday and a bunch of us were sitting on the steps of the sorority house enjoying the weather. I had just received an A on an important test. A young man who I’d always admired (ok, had a crush on) walked by and stopped to talk to me. He asked me if he could come by the next day and hang out with me. I will never forget that feeling of everything being right with the world that day. The relationship with the boy didn’t materialize, I got less than A’s on future tests, and the perfect weather didn’t last long, but for that moment I felt that I owned the world.

Was that my best day? The fact that I still remember it in detail tells me it might have been. Since then, I’ve had near-perfect days occasionally -- many when David and I were still together and traveling with a young Sarah in the back seat. Wonderful family memories. And there was a day, when I was about 19, walking on the wharf at Monte Carlo with a summer romance (also fleeting), and many moments on Route 66 when all the stars and moons seemed to come into alignment. But I still prefer to think that my “best day” is yet to come.

What is YOUR best day??

3 comments:

Trevor Hilton said...

I'm sure the BEST day of my life will be the day I go to Heaven.

So far, well, there's the day I got married. The two days when I drove my children home from the hospital. I can think of other days, and other moments, that I wish would last forever. There were many instances when I was setting in a chair, with one of my children going to sleep on my shoulder, and words can't describe the feeling of having that little, warm, soft body cuddled up with you.
Like you, Laurel, it's hard to pick one.

Mike said...

I don't know that I could pick a "best day". Some might say that any day when you wake up, make it through the whole day, and then lay your head down at night could be the best. In my case I've either had WAY too many to count or remember, or none at all.

Ken Riches said...

I think we have best days for different phases of our lives. For this current phase, it would be while in Chicago, at the top of the Navy Pier ferris wheel, when Beth said "Yes", and we went to the Brian Setzer concert.