Yesterday I went into the city in the morning for yoga class, but I slept through most of it. I made it through the first meditation, and it was all about radiant bodies. The instructor, a beautiful young cherub with a clear, calm voice, talked about how our radiant bodies are the things that go out and get things done in the world, and how people with radiant bodies inspire other people to be their best.
And then I fell asleep soon after the meditation, and skipped all the exercises. I am lazy this summer. L-A-Z-Y.
Also I’d had too much to drink the night before. Stefan and Summer and I had gone to a roof party thrown by Jen Gilmore’s sister, Kate. I’d had every intention of doing the night right: there was going to be a lot of food there, and I would eat and drink in balance. But as we walked over to the apartment we saw storm clouds rolling in, and we couldn’t get there fast enough. Then there was this semi-complicated, but completely awesome maneuver in order to get into the building, where Kate unlocked her car from up on the roof using her remote opener, and then – she was instructing me by phone the entire time – I opened the door, and pulled out a small box which contained the keys to her apartment building. I put the keys back in the car and waved when I was done, and she locked it again. I found the whole experience incredibly satisfying.
We made our way up the roof just in time for the heavens to open up with rain, and everyone rushed downstairs with all the food and we all crammed into this apartment and basically I was standing near three pies, a plate of cupcakes, one bowl of spinach dip and approximately nine hundred bottles of wine, so I drank too much instead. The rain eventually stopped and we went back on the roof later and I met so many nice people, including someone who raved about Light in August, and I realized I had never read it, and have since purchased it. I did get to eat some cheese, but you know when it’s too late? It was too late.
So anyway I slept through most of the yoga, but then I meditated again at the end, and I felt at least that I was going to go out in the world feeling positive. When I woke up this morning I thought I wanted to write a short story collection called Radiant Bodies, and that it would be this book about people going out and getting things done in the world. (Or not getting things done, perhaps, too, as a counterpoint.) I looked online to see if the title had already been taken, and it hadn’t. It seems so obvious to me that it should already exist.
