Ten.One Thousand, Six Hundred & Ninety-Two

1. Cold and yet hot.

2. Blood-orange cake from a box.

3. Pouring the last glass of orange juice is always a bittersweet moment.

4. I remind myself that this is only the first week of this and that is why it feels so hard. We will find a new way.

5. The audacity. The hubris. The delusion.

6. I sit in the boardroom alone, listening to the gentle sound of the rain. Rain. Rain. It’s raining. Wet concrete. Damp air.

7. Zoom calls from the school pick-up line.

8. There has to be a better way.

9. “When was the last time I had to use my mouthguard?” I ask him. “When was the last time I couldn’t open my mouth to eat breakfast? That just tells me how bad it was.”

10. Something has got to go.