My Jacob Marley

 I love when Emma is magically here when I get home.  That happened yesterday.  She comes sometimes when she needs to focus and her apartment isn't cutting it.  I told her that all day I'd been thinking off and on (because I was teaching and that has a way of taking up my attention) about our new neighbors.  They are going to build a house in the lot next to our house that has been empty since we moved here.  We've known it was going to happen eventually but now that it is, I feel sad.  I like looking out the window and seeing sagebrush.  There's only one small window that it will impact, but still.  I keep returning to it like a toothache my tongue keeps finding.  

I said, "Speak comfort to me Jacob!" to Emma.  She started telling me how it wasn't that big of deal, how it wouldn't impact us that much.  I said, "Come outside."

I showed her the orange marks that I assume are the perimeter of the house.  She said, "Oh, never mind.  That's awful."

"Emma!" I said.  "You're supposed to be making it OK."

She said, "I'm trying."

Then she led me to the other side of the house and showed me our neighbors on the other side and how because of the differing levels and angles, our houses felt further apart than they actually were.

So then I told her she was doing a good job.  I felt better.

Everyone needs an Emma.