three minutes

i have three minutes until i have to go check the peach cobbler that is in the oven. i started working at a local fruit stand today. in the summers, mom and i always get our vegetables from this guy eddie. eddie did some work on our house when we built it in '91 and somehow my parents knew him before that. so mom was up at the stand a few weeks ago and eddie said to send me over if i needed something in my spare time. so today was my first day. i came home with some bruised peaches, some tomatoes, string beans, a cantelope and a sweet pepper. the first day went well. eddie is laid back. brb… have to go check the cobbler…

okay. just finished my peaches and cream. and it was good. not too sweet. just right with vanilla ice cream. and i am now sweating because it is terribly humid out here. im sitting outside on our back deck in our screened room. im listening to my country music playlist. and im soaking up my time in the south this summer.

i have really enjoyed being home and having a laid back summer. the fruit stand, in all it's languid glory, makes me realize how uptight i can be and how hurried i am when i try to accomplish things. i was basically told at the stand today that i was hired to be a mentor to someone else who works there who "has a lot of redneck in them." i am apparently there to provide some refinement. which is interesting. i dont really know how to mentor someone. i mean, i know i dont really have to do anything but it makes me want to be a good role model. i just want to be sure to say the right things without sounding like im trying to say the right things.

it is great to watch the corn grow here. i have been around a lot of corn fields in the last few weeks (especially the trip to and from the fourth of july party last weekend) and it really makes me feel like im in the country.

i ran into my third grade teacher at the fruit stand today. she was very confused about why i was working at a fruit stand if i were in grad school at yale. and everyone i work with is too young to drive. they are 14 and 15-year-olds who are in high school and are too young to know where they will go after high school. it's kind of odd to be around people so young but it doesnt bother me. it just makes me realize they must think im super-old. and everyone who doesnt know me and my random jobs thinks it's odd that id work at a fruit stand. but i really think it is ideal: it is about a mile from home, it's totally laid back, eddie doesnt care what my schedule is, i can be outside, the work isnt hard, and i get to mingle with country people with great accents and a nice attitude toward life. plus, i get to eat all the hanover tomatoes i want. which is great. god i could live off tomatoes for the rest of my life.

which essentially means im getting fed very well this summer. i get free shockoe shakes at the coffee shop which are basically the most amazing shakes youve ever had. they are vanilla ice cream, espresso, and a little chocolate syrup, and they are essentially the reason i love that coffee shop so much. theyre amazing. basically the only richmond foods im not getting for free this summer that i equally adore are bill's barbeque limeades andukrop's cupcakes. and i refuse to work at either of those establishments, so im doing pretty well as is.

i am still not sure that i want a country life forever, but it really is great short-term. i just hope i marry someone from the country with a pinch of city slicker in them. i know that's a lot to ask but i have both in my blood and i consider both fields of knowledge equally important. i have spent a lot of time doing odd jobs and hobbies to gain basic knowledge that i think people should have — how to build things, how to cultivate things, how to sew, how to cook.

there were two other country things i wanted to mention… the first is that people drink beer where i work. beer is like soda to some people and it really threw me when someone opened a beer at noon and thought nothing of taking that on a tractor to go plow. plus, sometime this afternoon eddie called me over to his truck as he was leaving the stand and said 'carter, do you listen to music?' and i said yes and he said 'who sings this?' … it was a country song i am familiar with (only b/c ive been listening to a lot of country in the last six months) … but i didnt know the group. the funniest part was that 'music' to eddie was what i'd call country. i suppose that his friends dont listen to much else.