"There inside the garden

came my lover's lips...
"I will give you golden mountains
if you stay a while with me""...
The Garden, PJ Harvey, off "Is This Desire"

I waited 1/2 an hour this morning to give D a rose today at work. I came on a day I knew would be busy, but it's our first real anniversary - one month since our "first real date", when neither of us were impeded by other romantic things we had been previously engaged in. The funny thing is that I had waited outside the florists for 15 minutes, waited before that for snow-delayed busses the whole way out to my Friday "crack and poke" appointment. It was a day of waiting, and I was happy to be patient, if cold. The new snow makes it all so glorious, and I was replete with opportunity to consider how beautiful it is to be in love.

By the time I made it to the teller window, D was overwhelmed with what appeared to be a quite distressed foreign customer trying hard to transfer money from...China, I think? I didn't want to pay *too* much attention, trying to preserve privacy. After awhile, the other "customers" flowed around me and I resolved to lean against the pole and half listen to D meticulously and patiently talk bank while I watched silent Packer replays above the tellers' heads. At a moment, a tiny break, I busted the little red bud out of it's myriad layers of paper protecting it from the cold, and met D on the side to transfer my little representation of love in a moment's reprieve. "You are such a romantic", a friend of D's clucked before I waited in line. In the end, the gesture felt much less romantic and much more -- contrived, waiting for so long, but I didn't mind. After all, I stare at walls for fun and a profession; I'm pretty patient. Just one moment in the middle of stress means something, this is one thing I have learned, and I am happy I didn't give up and go home and save it for the evening.

So here's a shout out to all my friends and my lover, at their customer service jobs, plugging away at their days, being patient or hard on themselves. I send you all virtual roses. I am struggling on my own time to get things done without a boss over my shoulder, but I realize the privileges of my position, regardless, and I send out my love to all you working hard in your own ways right now. Let Friday bring you some repreive...