TheBanyanTree: Tacos and Sunny Days

[Barbara Edlen]

I love this, Neekia. It celebrates Stew, life in general and yet also 
accepts the realities of life without all the negative crap that can 
bring us down.

On 5/4/2011 4:56 PM, Monique Colver wrote:
> Today is sunny, a rare thing here in the PNW lately, one of those days that
> makes me wish I had become a forest ranger instead of an accountant, but
> then I remember that being a forest ranger sort of involves working all
> year, not just on the rare nice day. I don’t function in extreme heat or
> extreme cold, in high winds, in rain or snow, so I’m rather limited. Still,
> if I could be a writer/accountant on the bad days and a forest ranger on the
> good days, that might work.
>
>
> In Yuba City, which is not in the PNW but in California, there is, or used
> to be, a little taco place. There may be several in fact, but this
> particular one was housed in a Mexican market, and in bad weather the
> restaurant section was confined to the back of the store, with utilitarian
> metal tables. No frills, no amenities. But when the weather was nice, there
> was an outdoor patio with long wooden tables and servers who would bring
> fabulous food. I suppose they had food other than tacos, but since I always
> ordered tacos I’m not sure what that would be. They were the best tacos, and
> combined with the sunny springlike weather (in the spring, at least), it was
> my favorite place to eat.
>
>
> When Stew and I were still just friends we’d meet there often, especially
> since we met in the spring. Later we’d meet in the summer, and that was good
> too. If it was a nice Saturday outside and my husband was sulking, which he
> did pretty constantly since he’d temporarily cut back on drinking, I’d call
> Stew and say, “Want to go have tacos?” and Stew, being Stew, would always
> say yes.
>
>
> We’d meet, have tacos, laugh, talk about whatever on the shaded patio, and
> somehow my whole unbearable life became easier. I don’t know if it was the
> tacos, the sun, the company, or the break from the unbearable one, who had
> become a grumpy old man far before his time, but it restored me so I could
> go back to my work with a lighter step and a better attitude.
>
> My work at the time wasn’t accounting but writing, which may have made it
> easier, or not.
>
>
> Now when the sun comes out in that same shade of warmth, with the sky the
> deep blue of spring, the kind of blue you can’t find in the summer when the
> sky is a pale hot blue that tells me to seek air conditioning, I wish that
> taco place was here, and not 8 hours south. Charming husband and I could sit
> outside and have tacos on the covered patio. Heck, long as I’m wishing, Stew
> could be there with us, the three of us celebrating spring and another
> successful issue put to bed. But Stew’s not here, there are no issues to
> finish, and the taco store is far away, so Charming husband and I will make
> do with ourselves and the lovely spring, and count ourselves lucky.
>
>
> Lucky, by the way, comes right after 10, if you’re really into counting it.
> I say forget about the counting and just go with it.
>