a beautiful day made better

brooke and alley pull into the driveway on their bikes

just as bre and i are going out

"mom's bringing you something" they say

OMG!!! panic seizes my gut

"how's yer head alley" i ask nervously

we took the gurls with us to the drive-in last night

which is really another story for another time

however

there was one particularly noteworthy incident

when alley was catapulted off the teeter totter

and onto her cute little head

there was no visible damage - but maybe she's emotionally scarred

damn that jill i thought

out of her sickbed and marching up here

to serve me with legal papers

for damaging her child

and suddenly there she was

and the moment consumed me

watching her walk up the street

seeing her a little stronger each time we've met lately

after seeing her get so weak during that dirty trip they call treatment

i coulda just scooped her up

and swung her around and round singing joy to the world

like jeremiah bullfrog

and then

she greets me with:

"whoa i think i'm gonna be sick

what was i thinking

i need to sit down on that rock"

it's a damn hot day

and it's uphill to casa de swinghammer from jewelgurl place

distracted by the excitement

i've forgotten about the impending legal action between us

she sits down and hands me some papers

take that card to work for me? she says

it's a thank-you card for our coworkers - with a note

and i'm awkwardly relieved

it wasn't long

before we both regained our composure

and we were talkin shit

like any other time

no really - we were talkin' shit

it was like this

they asked where we were going

and breanna let everyone touch the snake's shedded skin we were taking to the pet store

to find out if it's big enough to eat the larger cuter baby mice

and then

somehow the conversation went from

garth offering to show us "his snakeskin"

(with that unsettling sincere look he uses

to compliment his subtly insincere intonation)

to a graphic conversation about

jill's enema night

garth was trying to "jam it in there"

while the gurls were coaching

"it goes in there? isn't that where poo comes from"

and then the dog jumped up on the bed to join them

it was a family affair jill says

and there we were

like i said- talking shit

you just can't make up stories like that

you really can't

so we laughed

and then she got up to leave

i offered to drive her home

or follow her with the 4ways on like they did with terry fox

she said no and i knew she meant it

she told me about the importance of exercise post rx

encouraged me to do the TERRY FOX run for cancer research

and with a pleasant air of determination

headed for home

the long way

garth at her side

and the gurls right behind her

beautiful made better

thanks for the visit

jewelgurl