At Starbucks: Haiku
Grab something: yum, yum—
The icy side of cold brew.
A splash for summer.
Road Trip to La Encantada
My Saturday tasks are done.
Time for a bit of fun and mingle among the foothills crowd for a summer
road trip. Up and down curvy Campbell
Avenue, I easily find a parking spot.
The moneyed class is in California or Colorado and Tucson’s plebes
benefit on the less trafficked streets and open parking lots.
AJ’s is air-conditioned chilliness and bustling with kids in
soccer shorts, punk teens with studs in their tongues, and seniors cradling
shivering Schnauzers in baby strollers.
I head straight for the “grab and go” counter and buy a slice of
vegetable pizza. In the shade and under
misting sprinklers, I am at a table by a fountain and potted blue flowers. Picking the onion off the cheese, the pizza
is savory, but dry from too long under the heat lamp.
Sucking on a dessert chocolate with sea salt, I go for a
mini-shopping spree and leave Crate & Barrel with a cruet rubber stopper
and a single glass from Italy that fits precisely to my hand. Up the escalator to browse in a bohemian
clothing store. I pick a bar of soap on
sale that is wrapped in pink paper and smells of peonies. When I use it at home, I will be reminded of
my mom who loved her late spring peonies that grew in our Illinois back yard.
Succumbing to the temptation of clothing racks on sale, I
find a light cotton blouse that could match a navy pair of linen pants I
already have. I have never ventured into
the dressing area before and am surprised to be greeted by Angela who asks my
name. I wonder why she wants to know my
name, but see that, as I tell her, she writes it on the small blackboard sign
on a dressing room door that, for the moment, belongs to me. The blouse “fits” in the style of
summer-loose, but it is beyond my weekly budget. Indulge: yes or no? Well, I am alone all week and no one to scold
me, so I decide to buy it, too. As I
give Angela the clothes hanger she waves me to the treat table: lime-flavored
water and tiny chocolate cupcakes topped with a red raspberry. I sip the water and skip the cupcake.
After my purchases, I decide: enough! It’s time to head down the hill and go to
Starbucks to write. So, with a smile and
a song from Keith Urban, my Subaru glides through the turns and I savor my Tucson
townie road trip on a Saturday in June.
