The megastore recommends.

still light!

1. Getting home before it's dark. The people, this seems obvious, but sometimes it isn't. I
recommend it. When you leave the gym and it's still light, it makes you feel like you can go to the grocery store and buy food. Arriving home with said food when it's still light makes things like, oh, talking to the people you love, and standing around in the kitchen chopping stuff feel both possible and delightful. Arriving home when it's still light makes the enthusiastic and sniff-you-up way the big waggy dog greets you at the door feel sweet and charming instead of overwhelming.

2. Making dinner, with food. Speaking of chopping stuff: how lovely it is to have dinner at

dinner! with food!

home! Even when it's the same old thing, because it's what people like and it's manageable and--this is key--it's reliably delicious. Chopping red onions and green onions and a half a jalapeño and cilantro and tomatoes feels like a little bit of ordinary wizardry. It's good. It feels like you're living your life instead of your life living you.

like this, but on the
inside.

3. A fleeting feeling of leisure. Oh, how I treasure this. It's not like there aren't a million and one things on the list, and maybe they're even clamoring for my attention. But it's Thursday night. I got home before dark. I bought food, I prepared it, we ate it together and had a conversation at a dinner table. I put the leftovers away. After that, a little note of devil-may-care creeps in--why not take a moment to read the paper, or think a desultory thought? And maybe lie down for a tiny little rest whilst your husband watches a basketball game? Why not?

guacamole technical note.

4. Guacamole. Cut the avocado right in its skin, then scoop it into a bowl. Minced red onion, sliced green onion. Finely chopped jalapeño and cilantro. If you're in the mood, a little chopped tomato. Salt. Do what you feel you need to to make it the texture you like--mash or further cut it with knives in the bowl. Is this not, in fact, a tiny little fiesta, happening right in your kitchen? Well, isn't it?