austere
The immaculate bareness of a garden with its gates closed.
clattering
"Please, no quarters," the cashier says. "A lady came in this morning and paid me 56 dollars in quarters."
larynx
They dial up the excitement in a game of Twister by trying to put each other in chokeholds.
smoother
I keep thinking this is going to be an awkward, painful conversation, made more uncomfortable by the fact that it's over the phone - not face-to-face or by email, which is what I prefer. But it goes well. There are no leaden, sinking silences.
striven
Reaching a private, hard-won milestone that gives me hope.
thumb
It hits me that I don't look like anyone in the room. Superficially, I could say I have the same hair color or skin color as most of them. But I couldn't blend in if I tried. One after the other, hair, clothes, gestures, unblemished sameness, and I'm amazed and a little afraid sitting there sticking out.
tints
Colors creep into a brisk, cold landscape. The shades of blue in the reservoir, the green tint to the gray plants by the wayside that hold out for warmer weather.
