Sweet

Friday night, Laverne Cox from Orange is the New Black came to speak on campus.

Thursday evening, I quick invited a handful of friends to come over for a drink and dinner beforehand. And the group grew, and strangers were added to the friends, and suddenly I had nine people coming over to my house for beef and sweet potato stew.

At around noon on Friday, I got a text from a number I didn't recognize*, asking if they could stay in my guest room that night.

And my first thought was, "sure."

Eventually, it occurred to me that that should probably be conditional — that I should probably only actually say, "Sure," if it was someone I knew and liked and who was ideally going to Laverne Cox.

But, you know, whatever.**

Day 16 of our month of gratitude: I am thankful for my home. I am grateful for its shelter, but also for the chance to open it to family (and the police) and friends and strangers, for stews and dilly beans shared of an evening, for latenight conversation, for morning cups of tea in the kitchen.

*After my phone issues a few weeks back, a few contacts were wiped out. I thought I'd figured them all out, but apparently not quite.

**If you must know, it was RI's sister, who was, in fact, going to Laverne Cox.