Shannon's room

My friend Shannon lived in Boston for a few years. She worked as an RA at a boarding school, so she had a tiny room and bathroom in an old stone dorm. When I visited, I slept on the top bunk, and we talked and giggled like Girl Scouts until we fell asleep at night. She also worked at the YMCA, which meant that she had to get up early in the morning, four thirty or five. I remember the grey light through the window and the warmth of the flannel sheets from LL Bean, the smell of french vanilla Dunkin Donuts coffee, and the pleasure of being able to fall back asleep for as long as I wanted.

The light is the same today -- grey sky, snow on the rooftops.