Kimberlee K.

Right now, Thursdays are my favorite day (aside from Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays, I suppose.)

Thursdays I get to go in late to work because I exercise in the mornings, filling my endorphins cup early. I count down throughout the week, thinking, only x more sleeps until I wake up on Thursday. And waking up on Thursday means it’s only one day until Friday (and then Saturday and then Sunday). So it romanticizes the whole week for me. And sometimes I really need that.

This Thursday was extra special though. Because after I got my workout in, after I made it through my workday, I was going to see my sister and my niece. And so the whole day was a blur of fast but not fast enough, the whole week was good but not good enough, because Thursday at 5:00pm was all I was waiting for. And sure enough, on Thursday at 5:00pm, my sister opened the door and my niece smiled.

I stood in my raincoat, my hair slightly frizzy and my socks a little wet, my bones chilled from the breeze. But when your niece sees you behind the door and grins from ear to ear, everything else melts away. So we went inside.

We ordered noodles and we walked around and around and around. Though I’d been to my sister’s house many times, my niece seemed to look back at me over and over, thinking, but have you seen THIS? Sitting still wasn’t an option, not when there was so much to see and show and touch and giggle at. Big belly chuckles healed parts of my heart and small moments of wonder made it ache.

For a little while my niece and I sat in a rolling chair and just swayed, her content to just be there with me, unaware that it was Band-Aiding so many parts of my day, my month, my year, my life. And to make things even better, my sister and I chatted. And chatted and chatted and chatted. From room to room, from evening to dark, over music and tears and Winnie the Pooh. We hit topics previously planned (remind me to tell you about…) and some we’d never talked about before. We each worried we were keeping the other up too late but couldn’t seem to stop talking. Talking through loneliness we hadn’t noticed got too tall, or knots that had grown too tight. Talking until our shoulders sunk away from our ears and our bodies molded to the couch.

I sat cross legged on the floor as my niece stacked and stacked and stacked things in my lap, trusting me with their safe keeping. I watched her, wondering, do you know how long we’ve thought about nights like this? How long we dreamed about you? How did we get here so fast? But also, what took life so long?

It was cinematic and easy, natural and yet profound.

It was just a “girls’ night” and yet…not just.