Diet, Caffeine Free Coke (the kind in the gold cans that I only ever like in Georgia)

“Get up, kid!” My grandpa burst through the guest room door. We had planned to be on the water by 5:30; it was now 6:03. My adolescent lethargy was almost enough to make me slide back under the sheets, but a glance through the window told me that this was a day for fishing.

It was early June in Newnan, Georgia. From noon until dusk, standing outside was like standing in a furnace. But there was a small, magical window of time in which the temperatures were mild and the large mouth bass rose from the grass. Yes, they were hungry and we were ready to throw everything but the kitchen sink at them.

This is what we did when I visited my grandparents every summer. We fished. Now, since I was not a year-round fisherwoman at this point in my life, my grandpa always stocked up on a few dozen jumbo minnows before I arrived. This is not cheating, but, under the blazing summer sun, the odds were in my favor.

My grandfather saw my contemplation and walked out of the room. “Two minutes and I’m leaving without you!” He shouted back. I knew he wouldn’t but that didn’t stop me from jumping out of bed and dashing out after him like a fresh, young springbok. I was barefoot and t-shirted, the promise of the catch stealing all the sleep from limbs.

I darted down the stairs to the basement where my grandparents stayed. In two leaping bounds, I’d past years of memorabilia hanging along the wall. “Oh, Anna, sit down,” sang my grandmother in that special tone only a grandmother possesses.

“Sorry, Gram, gotta go, gotta go, big fish, today, big fish!” I repeated myself out of excitement. In these golden days, I was a regular zealot with nothing to do but do.

Every day, we played this charade: both knowing my exuberance would not allow me to sit and eat in these fleeting morning hours. So, every morning, my grandmother handed me a container of macaroons and a diet, caffeine free coke (the special ones in the gold cans that I only ever liked in Newnan).

Never stopping for a moment, I grabbed two rods and the old, tackle box and took off down the stone path. I always regretted not wearing any shoes on account of the jagged rocks in the soles of my feet but it was always forgotten as soon as I jumped up the three stairs up to the red, wooden dock. My grandpa followed behind with that agonizingly slow pace that adults always seem to have. I surveyed the lake. Touches of sun peaked behind the westward pines. This was a day for fishing.

"Festival"-Sigur Ros

"Weighty Ghost" -Winter Sleep

"Agape" -Bear's Den

"Here's To Now" -Ugly Casanova

"Cosmic Tim" -The Great Bear Trio (outro to an epic 90s alt film of self-discovery + a fiddle. tell me the world doesn't make sense after the initial confusion subsides.)

"Beast of Burden" -The Rolling Stones (didn't realize how much i'd miss my dad. here's to you, pops!)

"As a deer pants for flowing streams so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God... Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life... Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God." Pslam 42