First off was Julia and her big smile when I picked her up from work. She at last had a good day and would we celebrate? Celebrate, we did. I ate slowly of the spicy salsa on chips, hint of fresh oregano in the mix. The tea, clear and uncloudy, from purified water, no doubt, was refreshing. The shreds of purple and green lettuce would have been better has I not oversoaked them with Italian dressing.

Hm-m-m-m, there is an Italian dressing, why isn't there a Mexican dressing? Nevermind, the food was good. I had a taco, with good shredded beef, not fatty ground, a rolled taco, still fluffy with freshness containing dried beef, and a chili relleno, all nicely housed in its egg sack.

The energetic rush of a waitress, oh, I can tell she has a temper, amused me as she came and went by several times.

So full I was at meals end, and so content. There there was the drive home in the encroaching sunset, beautiful pale orange puffy clouds shot through with purple streaks. It all unfolded before me.

I let Julia fill the tank of the car, while I watched the last of the sunset, enjoying the cool breeze entering the open door. Cool breeze! The house is now open, fans poised to pull its freshness into a house stale with being shut up in summer's heat.

I remembered Laura with a bit of yearning as I looked at the sunset. We had good times, we did. The yearning isn't as painful as it used to be. There's a sweetness now with the bitter. How can I express the ineffable?

I start with a word, heard in my mind and take the next as it comes, all bright and linear this way, reel them in and stack them up. To the savored memories of yesterdays I add new ones, such as a simple joy at seeing Julia's smile when exiting work.

This reclaiming of our lives from the mundane takes only an openness of senses and of mind to savor what is uncommon. I wanted to take photographs all evening. Looking through the bottom of my tea glass, ice displaced, with the distortions of the scene beyond it, was pleasing. There are such colorful decorations at this restaurant. I spent time studying the table. It is a frame of wood, over which a glass sheet is laid and sealed. Underneath the glass, a striated rug of many colors, blue, fushia, green, white and yellow, keeps its colors bright. The chairs, too, are of this thick woven striated wool, under protection of sealing plastic.

I love the exuberant explosion of color. I hate the somber, always somber. I can imagine me as a vampire living in that dark house in which the coven resided in UNDERWORLD. I'd cry, ''Can we PLEASE have more lights and can I paint the walls yellow and have nice bouquets of fresh flowers here and there? Where does it state in the vampire contract, because I drink blood, I have to wear black and line my eyes with black paint?''

I would be a troublemaker. But then I've always been a troublemaker. I've mostly just kept sneaky and silent about it. And let's not forget STUBBORN. That leads to the strong will it takes to hold one's place in the world with dignity. And mark my words, this simple act does take a strong will.

So many want to 'knock one down to size', THEIR size, I suppose. No, I'm 'living large', and they can't stop me. They may not like it, No tienen gusto de eso, but ''Pfft!'' The radio had one of their little contests on who said the following words, 'the nattering nabobs of negativity'. Ah the 'nattering' of nabobs, or should I say CHATTERING of nabobs?

Anyway, I, being of 'an age', knew the answer - Spiro T. Agnew. This phrase may be the thing for which he's remembered most. Hey, at least it's something. So many vice presidents fade into gray when their term is done. I, on the other hand, hope NEVER to 'fade into gray'. Keep it colorful, I say!