American idyll.

I watched the sun fall tonight behind a row of terracotta-colored houses. From a chair on the screened-in balcony, I sat and listened to the frogs and the birds and other little things that go chirp in the night. I watched the trees' reflections on the lake as a duck made a slow V towards his little duck family waiting on the opposite bank.

There are 230 homes in my development, and I can't hear a single neighbor.

Not a one.

Not a sneeze, not a cough, not a game show, not a noisy muffler, not a "hey, get me another beer", not a "fuck you, asshole, I'm not your goddamned maid", not a bachata, not a merengue, not a salsa, not a Lil' Wayne, not a Young Jeezy, not a Nirvana cover by the drunk white guy in the back on his gee-tar. Not a fart, not a flush, not a sinkful of dirty dishes, not a screaming child, not a peacock on the loose, not two stray cats fucking, not an argument over cards, not a headboard banging against the wall from the cow next door.

Nothing. Nada. Niente.

I'm the happiest girl in the world.

:)