for this morning's tupperware brunch. because there's something i really and sincerely love about being (almost) convinced that i should be making all my pasta in the microwave, in a $20 plastic box designed specifically for that (and no other) purpose. about a group of us being called, really and sincerely, "ladies."  

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for being able to hear the music from the 5 PM mass across the backyard. if i'm lucky and the wind is right (and if there's a gap in the deafening, never-ending parade of motorcycles that roars by all summer long) i can hear the organ being played during the evening service at the church next door, and some faint singing. a privilege, to be able to eavesdrop that way. a holy thing.

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for listening to audra read food network magazine out loud to herself: "lasagna soup?! ... pies on a stick?! ... pumpkin caramel?! ... oh, man. oh, i would eat the shit out of that."