We dig snow and rain and the bright sunshine

On Saturday afternoon, beneath clear blue skies and a warm golden sun, zipping through the cool air of a Texas April afternoon, two friends, Cheyenne and I headed for Austin. The 70s station on the XM radio was playing Kasey Kasem's Top 40 from a year that The Spinners, the Four Tops, the Stylistics, Gladys Knight & the Pips, the Carpenters and Tony Orlando & Dawn were all in the top ten. My friends and I sang along to all the songs, reaching for the volume, smiling, remembering. For a good part of the drive, the sunshine, the music and the singing carried me to a silly and carefree place. It was fun.

The day continued on just like that, filled with these moments where everything was perfect in and of itself, the right music, the right people, the right temperature. I want to tell you how wonderful my niece is and how very much I enjoy her laughter and her friends, about how long the hugs were and how broad the smiles. I want to tell you about the lazy meals on restaurant patios and wearing the wrong shoes to trek around Barton Springs. I want to tell you about how the Wyndam hotel not only welcomed Cheyenne with a goody bag of treats and a pink bandana, and paid an obscene amount of attention to her but also Sunday morning answered my call to the front desk with an exuberant, "Is this Cheyenne's Mom?"

There's just something so nice about an April weekend in Texas, spent with family, friends and my dog.