I'd Already Known

When I spoke with Dr. Butman this afternoon, I told him I was going to have a good cry. But I didn't. I had already received the message about the review board's rejection a full day before. Yesterday afternoon, the message had come through so strong, and it's then that I had cried. No, wept, sobbed. Crying again tonight would have been excessive, anticlimactic, and redundant.

Instead, Aaron gave me a hug, we got a coffee, and I walked with him to his night shift at the Paradise. I sat at his station, and he served me tortilla soup--yummy--and mac and cheese balls--decadent. Then I took a leisurely walk home, delighting in the evening sunlight and shadows, smiling at the flowering vines that hung playfully over fences, gazing at beauty large and small. I stopped at Portfolio Coffeehouse and looked at the photographs on the wall, as I had read that Sarah Vinci, a photographer I profiled for Long Beach Magazine, was featured. There I happened upon Victor, my next-door neighbor, and his friend Amy. A pleasant exchange.

A walk in the loveliness of early evening was so much better for my mood and my heart than tears. I've got to keep the endorphins zinging so that I'll be glowing for the UCLA transplant review board!