The Adult At The Keurig
I tried to stifle a yawn as I moseyed over with the travel cup, that I brought from home, in-hand to the Keurig to make a cup of piping hot coffee. My short journey from my new desk to the tepid machine, who decided on its own who and at what time they would get their morning pick-me-up, became my mini break among the busyness of event planning and building social media content online.
I ended up running into another co-worker by the Keurig in the kitchenette who was warming up a leftover snack in the microwave, which always strongly smelled like the thing the last person who used it put in to it. I greeted her with a familiar grin, since she had sat right across from my desk when I was an intern on the other side of the office. (more…)
Coloring With Crayons And Growing Up
A friend had recently called me in a panic to voice her concerns about the near future. I answered my ringing phone and spoke through the confines of a smile. “Hey, what’s up?”
“I don’t want to grow up.” I felt a slightly irrational sense of fear creep up from the other end of the phone. “Can’t we just sit on the floor and color?”
“I’m almost positive that you would have to find a job that would pay you to do that in order to survive as an adult,” I said.
She paused for a moment after my response to her calling attention to the obligations of a modern citizen living within the margins of traditional society. “These new responsibilities that come with adulthood are stupid.” (more…)
The Lives That Run Parallel To Our Own
The sound of knocking came from behind my best friend’s front door about an hour after we had come home from her birthday party. Her two dogs both ran to the door while eagerly wagging their tails and letting their mouths hang open in a way that mimicked an excited-looking smile, which let my friend and I know that there was a friend on the other side of the tall old decorative wooden ent
rance. I swiftly got up to place myself in front of my friend’s larger dog so I could open the door, but the short-haired copper-colored hound mix beat me to the front as I reached for the door’s elegant handle.
“Copper! Get down!” I tried pulling back the large dog as much as I could without harming him. “No!”
I opened the black screen door that revealed a young tall blonde man with a nice dark-colored plaid shirt tucked into a pair of thick denim jeans. He wore clean black work boots that many of the countrymen wore around the small town and gently raised his hand out from the warm summer country night air and into the slightly cooler home to pet the enthusiastic dog.
I tried nudging the large dog away from the entrance so our visitor could enter the house. “Hey, come in.” (more…)
Keep Close To Nature
“Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” –John Muir
A cool breeze that rushed up the mountainside had quelled the sweltering heat that rained down from the California summer sun. We attempted to catch our breath, while sitting on top of large gray flat-topped rocks embedded into the rich brown dirt, as the wind moved the few trees decorating the top of the mountain and the tall grass, sunflowers, and dried brush. It felt as though we were the only ones left on the planet as we looked down in to the green canyons while sitting on top of the world.
The picturesque mountainscape had become a wonderful excuse for a long nature hike miles away from any road flooded with cars. I did my best to capture all of the beauty that I had seen that day inside of the digital folders of my camera. Upon returning from weekend hiking into the tall mountains I picked up a call and greeted a familiar voice. (more…)
The Week I Lived Without A Phone
Photo by Petras Gagilas via Flickr
I noticed a change in my behavior that weekend in the woods. I had noticed the crisp air and the clear pale blue sky that sat above the tops of the tall green treetops. I had seen every lizard that hid in the dark cool cracks on fallen logs where dead trees gave way for new life to live and find shelter, and I could truly appreciate the thousands of dazzling white lights that nestled themselves against the black abyss that was our camp’s ceiling. I would look at all that surrounded me, and when I glanced at my fellow campers to discuss nature’s wonder, I saw faces glued to iPhones, eyes looking at front facing cameras, and fingers tapping impatiently as their owners waited for Wi-Fi.
I noticed that I had missed out on so many Snap stories that weekend, and realized that I didn’t really mind as much. I was in the woods, and not having a phone with me kept my focus there. I realized that the best time to have your phone stolen was right before a camping trip in the woods. (more…)
