Mooning

[muckefuck]

I couldn't squelch a certain disappointment last night at reaching the shoreline and finding the moon already up. Conditions were so perfect it's hard to imagine the moonrise was anything less than spectacular. Even fifteen or so minutes after clearing the horizon (in my estimation), it still had a pronounced ochre cast. But there was nothing to regret about having made the effort to get out of the house on a such a night. Without the stiff breeze blowing from the south, it might've been too hot for a comfortable stroll, but as it was it was invigourating, a true bit of high summer back for a visit in mid-September.

I watched from the railing for a bit, and when I turned around to take in the sunset colours against the clouds to the west, that's when I noticed the swarm of dragonflies. Must've been fifty of them darting above the gardens in front of Piper Hall. I was tempted to stay, but where there are so many active culicivores, there must be an truly terrifying populations of mosquitoes and I didn't fancy becoming their feast. The circular bench in front of Madonna della Strada was occupied by elderly Chinese who must've had the same purpose as me, although I didn't see a mooncake or a glass of wine between them.

Buoyed, I marched steadily northward, pausing occasionally to turn toward the southeast and take in the moonlight glinting across the waves. But as I approached Loyola Ave, I felt something else. A familiar melancholy was swelling within me, and by the time I reached Hartigan Beach, it had grown to where I only wanted to go home again. The beach was lively, but the road leading to it was empty and--once away from both Sheridan Road and the El tracks--quiet.

I was surprised to find the back door open and the storm door unlocked when I got home. I thought I'd made it clear to monshu where I was going. I was even more surprised to find him up and working at the computer; I thought he'd gone to bed an hour earlier. He told me he was coming outside for a cigarette, so I sliced up the mixed nut mooncake from Feida and poured two winecups of daughter-in-law wine.

Unfortunately, the wine had turned (something I didn't know could happen to Chinese liquor), so I made an offering to the earth and refilled the cups with Korean chrysanthemum wine and we toasted Chang'e. I contrasted my visit to the shore with our attempt to view the moonrise last year, sitting on a bench on Pratt Beach with my broken foot in a tremendous boot and cursing the haze that hid her from our view. Just before he turned in, the moon cleared the trees on Greenview and we were able to admire it together.