night life.

SO, SOMETIMES I FORGET in my tiny little verdant corner of the world that i live in what is considered an utterly urban environment...within walking distance of downtown...[where i live is technically not even suburbia, where most city mice find themselves]...and its broken sidewalks and now-schwanky 'reclaimed' historic districts were so long ago laid over wagon trails, it has mercifully escaped the blight of condo associations and gated communities and yards and color schemes that must all look the same.

there, in my little pocket of the universe, i have set about planting and growing and nourishing and tending to my own ramshackle container garden, my vegetables and herbs, my orchids and water lillies and various 'adopted' and 'volunteer' plants...and the green, and the quiet, and the wind in the leaves, fills my heart with an inexplicable comfort of breathing deep the scent of sap rising, and the joy of getting my hands dirty, touching and living close to the earth.

somenights i look out my upstairs window through the branches of various trees at the great orange moon rising over rooftops. and most often these days, when the wind comes to visit, i will stand at the window listening to the birds sing, and the dogs barking, and some neighborhood kids playing somewhere in the distance...eeking out the last seconds of their fleeting summer days before they have to pack it all in for the night. and, in my reverie, it's not hard to imagine i live somewhere where life is simpler...where there is no familiarity with the fast-pace that is all-day around us. and as the city sounds begin to quiet, and the frogs in my water garden begin to sing their night chorus, i can almost believe, this loft i live in...which used to be a carriage house for the horses nearly a century ago...is on some hillside in the south of france...or at the end of some long dusty lane, where the hours pass by with the rhythm of land.

AND THEN THERE ARE THOSE NIGHTS, THAT CAUSE ME TO REMEMBER...like last night when i woke at 3, like i often do, to haunt the midnight hours...the dormant collective memory of my family's farmer stock encoded in my DNA, even now. and wide awake, i decided to wander outside in my pajamas...who at all could possibly see me at this hour? the streetsweeper had long passed and the newspaper man had hours yet to come. and so, barefoot and with my laptop in hand...i wandered out in my garden to my car where, inexplicably, my friend Christine's wi-fi internet signal is strongest...i figured i may as well blog about the things that were turning over and over and over in my wee-hour-of-the-morning head.

now, believe me, i know i was quite a sight...computer in hand...sitting in my car...turning on occasionally the light to see where the comma is when i continually lose my bearing on the keyboard in the inky dark. and it makes me feel like a thief, or i am up to no good, because i am obviously horking internet, even though Christine has given me her password...and regularly plies me for advice on setting up a website for her...i log on with her blessing, but still...there i am...in my pajamas...steaming up my own windows, trying to keep the mosquitoes at bay. this is why i much prefer to avoid the stares of my misunderstanding neighbors, and to make good use of my predilection to need just a few hours of sleep. here i can do my internet thing in peace, and be done, long before dawn.

so there i was...somewhere around 5, and i finally determined it was a good time to wander in and officially start my day. the air was cool...even though...still...in the middle of the night, the street was warm beneath my feet...like it is an alive thing, a temperate creature, living so close to the equator, are we. i was taking my sweet time a-wandering...and enjoying how lush and green everything is, when i was nearly to my door where, what else?, BUT THE CITY'S LARGEST RAT was scurrying there and was just as stunned as i to be interrupted in his nocturnal prowls.

now...here's where my predictament became utterly laughable...because when you are out haunting your neighborhood in pajamas by the light of the moon...you tend to feel even more helpless when the only path to your front door is now intransible due to a frightened rustling RAT OF UNBELIEVABLE SIZE. and i'm aware that i may have been delusional...having been up all night, and such...but the sound that he made conjured up all the worst imaginings...i mean, clearly...i was the one out of my element...because, of course, it's my sweet garden by light of day, but MR. RAT'S ABODE ENTIRELY at night. and so, i felt decidedly at his mercy...and i thought, if he feels cornered, will he charge?

after stomping my feet a few times as a warning...i decided what i would do...back to my car for the sweater i always keep in the trunk...[yes, it's the middle of summer...but for the most part, society lives in a state of artificial, ice cold AC winter indoors, all-year-long.] i decided since i clearly already looked insane...and truth be told, had crazily spent the better part of the whole night out-of-doors, i would seem even nuttier and play the matador to get to my front door. if THE RAT decided to charge...at the very least maybe i could keep his nibbly teeth away from my terribly vulnerable toes.

and so, it goes, that at 5 a.m. this morning, i was swinging my cape wildly at the underbrush...trying, desperately, to avoid a run-in with the nightlife in my bare feet. absurd? most definitely...i had to giggle at all my most dreadful thoughts: with teeth like he had...it took me awhile to convince myself that he wouldn't care to dare to chew his way through my front door. and so, i now know...i will share my night haunts with his kind...but it won't give me pause, even to step out in my pajamas...i have long wandered the world by streetlight...but, next time i go...i'll most certainly remember to slip on some shoes...and carry a broom...pretty witch-like and fitting for a redhead who's frequently out wandering the world in the middle of the night.