--PAY CLOSE ATTENTION

…Here comes the weekend.  What have you got planned?

…A few things I learned this week are these:

…Adults who say these professions contribute to society's well-being:

Military - 78%

Teachers - 72%

Doctors - 66%

Journalists - 28%

Business Execs - 24%

Lawyers - 18%

…After Bellevue, Washington launched a fleet of apartments sized 300 square feet, Seattle is making a fleet of them even smaller at an astonishing 150 square feet.

…36% of all couples use a mobile phone to plan a date.

67% of those check their cellphone while on a date.

…I had this story published at Right Hand Pointing yesterday:

                                                                     Couples

            At the park, Jess watches a young man push his girlfriend on a swing.  The girlfriend chuckles with each shove, the sound more gurgles than laughter.  Sometimes he tickles her before liftoff to make her gurgle harder. 

            “Stop!” she says, but he knows she only want more, so he tickles her more and she gurgles again.

            They have the same heavy-lidded eyes, same broad foreheads, short necks, and fingers that are short, too, extending from their wide hands.

            Jess watches them move to the Merry Go-round.  They’re hardly pros.  The young man has difficultly pushing while maintaining balance.  Each time he tumbles, the girlfriend gurgles and shrieks with delight. 

            “You’re silly!” she says.

            Jess watches the young man belly flop into a pile of maple leaves, flapping his arms and legs as if making a snow angel, the girlfriend snorting and gurgling. 

            “Come on over,” the young man says, patting a flattened patch, “I’ve saved a seat for you.”

            After she does, the young man scans the pile for a particular leaf, one with a long stem, placing it through her hair, telling her she’s beautiful while watching her blush.  Then he kisses her nose.

            At dinner that night, Jess decides not to tell her husband about the couple she saw, the pair with Down Syndrome.  She watches her husband scroll through his phone as he does almost constantly, sometimes grabbing it just moments after they’ve had sex.  When she asks how his day was, he says, “Good,” without looking up, without asking about her day.

            In bed she imagines herself on a swing being pushed by a man who loves her, and soon she’s asleep, dreaming.