Wednesday, June 10, 2015

diner dreams

I romanticize diners, particularly when they're mentioned in song. Just sitting alone, people watching, waiting at the counter for the man to pour the coffee. However, when I go out, it's either with someone or with a book so I rarely just sit and think and people-watch. And I don't want to dine alone more often but I do want to be in the moment, instead of escaping into a book.

Last week, I went to Red Square Coffee on my bike ride into work. I used to live right near there and I've been carrying around a punch card for years with nine punches on it, just waiting to finish it off so I went there once and got a coffee to go a few weeks ago and last week, I got my free coffee. The other card I've been carrying around for years is for Common Ground Coffee Shop. I decided to get my ninth punch on that card and indulge in some diner/coffee shop love. It was what I needed. I listened to Eddie Vedder sing the 'Into the Wild' soundtrack and got to take stock of where I was and how I am doing. I need to do that more often.

Yesterday was a bit rough for me, as Tuesdays often are. We had our weekly staff meeting and I again thought about what it would be like just to walk away from it all. It's also my busy month so I have felt a lot of pressure. I desperately needed something new and all I could come up with was ordering the #54 at Pad Thai Kitchen which was tasty but still didn't satisfy my newness need. Breaking my morning routine today to stop and savor the environment was enough to snap me out of my rut and allow me to appreciate my life.

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