Oakland

 These pictures are of memories, a fairy, & making friends.

In Oakland I sleep with the back door opened.  There is no screen just a second floor wood veranda that looks out to the right at Lake Merit and used to have green plants all over it but now just has Jon's tent, airing out.  The breeze is always light and cool, and steady.  It makes me think the music up the street or downstairs is a festival in the street.  Which means Oakland has carnival air.

Tonight after work we ate Italian food on a corner at a wrought iron table.  They drank wine.  I had a down feather in my hair that made me think of getting clean.  We are working a lot, which feels good.  At night I run next to the lake which smells like sweat, or fish, or salt.  Like home.  There are always tons of people, in the dark, walking their dogs, sitting in the grass, being romantic, holding hands. 

I love laughing, that is a theme of Oakland, that and the peace of being myself and having nights of quiet company.  I love how the air through the back door breezes me to sleep.  I am going through something very recently that makes me realize how much I've grown when it comes to intimacy.  Which is good, because back when I realized I needed it, growth seemed the hardest, most far off way.

I love Oakland, Jon wants to live here forever, to maybe never leave.  I get it.  I would feel the same, too, if I had a home with laughing and peaceful carnival air.