Upside Ann

I've got a new boyfriend.  Landon.  He's going into the 5th grade next year.  I'm not sure if I'm cheating on my husband or my son. We meet at the pool.  As soon as I arrives, he's beside me asking "Do you want to dive off the board with me?" Absolutely, Landon.  Absolutely.   Zupe stopped playing with me 2 years ago.  If I swim up to him, he points me to the nearest ladder.  But, Landon... "Want to do a cannonball this time?"   "Let's run up to the edge and dive in!" And, he's so charming.  "How old ARE YOU?"  "Did you sleep OK last night? You look tired." Once again, I'm having fun and in demand!

 I know.  I had a plan to make 2025 about reading women authors...but this book was calling me from an end-cap at the library- an old friend from those giddy zombie days in the early-20-teens.  I caved.  I must say that this story read differently 10 years later: post COVID, post trump/ICE. Take this for example: You were't worried about public disclosure? From who? The press, the media. The "media"? You mean those networks that are owned by some of the largest corporations in the world, coporations that would have taken a nosedive if another panic hit the stock market? That media? So you never actually instigated a cover-up? We didn't have to- they covered it up themselves.  They had as much, or more, to lose than we did. And besides, they'd already gotten their stories the year before when the first cases were reported in America...It had become "manageable." People were learning to live with it and they were already hungry of something different.  Big...

 Even where there's nothing to live for, there's always the next meal. Amen, sister.