Thanks, man

Thanks, man Santa Fe is elevated 7,260 feet above sea level. It is not overcast. When there are clouds, the sun fills the space around them and splotches the mountains with their shadows. Im sitting on the porch of a coffeehouse in the railyard with a spoonful of melted ice cream, accidentally eavesdropping on the telephone conversation of the pretty lady behind me, watching the man across from me. He has a beard like Edward Abbeys and a red-and-blue forearm tattoo; hes wearing a straw hat and drinking Coke from a glass bottle. I was working on a longer blog post, a winding, comprehensive account of my entire summer, but I have to stop to thank the people around me right now for making me feel human again. I wasnt expecting it to happen this morning. I woke up dead tired in the house were renting here while we search for a more permanent place, brushed my teeth, and did my best to get a noncompliant five-year-old ready for school. Not easy, even when loads of sisterly love ought to lessen the struggle. After the rest of the family dispersed, I cleaned the house, sifted through a few hundred emails, checked my itinerary for the trip back to Cambridge, and worried about school. Several unproductive, fretful mind-cycles later, I put on my sunglasses and walked to the railyard, hoping the sunshine would make me stop twitching and biting my lip. It didnt quite, but I went to a bookstore in an old white house and looked through old Indigo Girls CDs and a book of poems by Bukowski, and I guessed what my problem was and wandered over to this coffee shop. The barista looks like a little like Reese Witherspoon and reminds me of my childhood best friends mother. I sampled a spoon of ice cream and ordered a cup of tea, and heres what happened next: A man with a gray-streaked black ponytail and diabetes, gruff, friendly, and confident, said my treat, bought me the ice cream too, and called out to two other people in the café just to ask if they wanted anything. Hes like the angel of the Station, Reese-Witherspoon-barista explained. I felt stupid for feeling anxious, so I quit. I didnt want my worry to contaminate the rasberry-dark chocolate ice cream. I decided this Station Angel Man deserved a shout-out, and all the other kids who are nervous about another year of school deserve a break, and I deserve a little break. I drew this picture of the railway station. I couldnt get it to go in right-side-up, so I just left it. Whatever. Heres a toast to all you humans. Coming soon: the story of my summer, starring cousins, bears, and a continuing experiment in cooperative living.