Alabama dreamin'

A new year in Alabama. So far I am enjoying my stay. I am not homesick yet. I like it here. There are ponds here. Like just out of nowhere, on the side of the road... a pond. I mean, they're everywhere. As common to the people here as seeing a Porche in LA. There is no reason to turn your head when it is something you see all the time. But to me, the ponds are little puddles of dreams. There is one on the way to the post office. It has a lonely green and white rowboat sitting on the shore. I don't know, is it called a shore? Is a pond large enough to warrant a shore? Well, there it sits, a little wonky, paint chipping, definitly not top of the line. But I have dreams that wrap themselves around this image. Barren trees, crisp air, random plant life that looks to me like it could have come from the dinasoar age, the pond, and the rowboat. I want to have a memory from my life that includes this scene. And not just a drive by. But an actual event. It is something I always dreamed of when seeing such scenes in a movie, or even in cartoons for that sake. Maybe it is because there are no ponds in San Francisco. At least none that aren't beside a freeway, and a rowboat...forget about it. It is something that only exists elsewhere. Somewhere I didn't live. In the mysterious place of Ralph Lauren ads. I wanted to be the girl with the long hair, with the matching gloves and scarf, on some romantic casual Sunday gathering on a large beautiful lawn, surrounded by friends. And that's when it happens... a spontaneous jump into a nearby rowboat. Drifting out no farther than shouting distance from the ones who stayed behind to finish drinking their sodas from straws. It wouldn't be anything dramatic, that would be the point, that in this life floating around in a pond is somewhat normal. Something you do to pass the time. Maybe now, I will get my chance. Not today, I have that package to bring to the post office, and some mundane chores that seem to follow you no matter where you live. But soon. It will be me. I will be the girl in the rowboat. I already have the matching gloves and scarf.