Daughter and I have established a Monday post-school ritual: we go to the little bookstore in our neighborhood and sit in the cafe, where she does homework and I have a coffee and peruse the shelves. We’ve been doing it all year.
Two things about yesterday agitated for a change, though. Daughter’s homework was already done by the time I picked her up, and the weather was that kind of early summer Chicago gorgeous that makes you want to be outside, not burrowed in among books. She proposed the frozen yogurt shop a few storefronts down from the bookstore and I easily yielded.
It’s on a corner, and its west-and-south facing windows look out onto a busy intersection of pedestrian and auto traffic, overhung by an elevated train track. It was the perfect view for a perfect afternoon with the perfect companion, who chatted eagerly about her diverse yogurt toppings and roller coasters she wants to ride.
More afternoons like that, please.
YoRocko! 
Dear Rocky, Thanks for saving that particular afternoon — but yes, more, so that I can figure out what that part about not wanting to be around books means.