On my way to the coffee shop this morning, I saw one of the employees leaving the store carrying a big paper bag with colorful things sticking out of the top. For just a moment, it seemed like a picture of a morning in a small town in France, with a woman carrying her bag of bread and flowers home from the shops. It was really just tall piles of cups, it turned out, but the lovely picture stayed with me.
I have taken to walking home from work. On rainy days, it is pleasant to be out walking along the river, holding my bright blue umbrella over my head. On sunny days, it is glorious. The whole world turns out, it seems, on sunny days. People walk and run and bike and rollerblade. They lounge and snuggle. They throw frisbees and footballs. Boats race through the water. Yesterday, a man stood on some sort of surfboard-like thing, paddling with a long paddle. Gross, I kept thinking, watching him, what if he fell in? That river is disgusting. Today, two families of geese were out, paddling through the water. One family had seven little goslings, and they were visibly working harder than their parents to move through the water. Their whole little bodies wobbled from side to side as they swam.
As I crossed the bridge, talking on the phone to my mom, a guy in his twenties, carrying his world in an old backpack, called to me, "Hey, can I get a high-five for peeing off this bridge?" His friend, sitting on the ground on the other side of the walking path, laughed. I tried to finish the sentence I was in the middle of speaking to my mom, but I was horribly distracted.
I have taken to walking home from work. On rainy days, it is pleasant to be out walking along the river, holding my bright blue umbrella over my head. On sunny days, it is glorious. The whole world turns out, it seems, on sunny days. People walk and run and bike and rollerblade. They lounge and snuggle. They throw frisbees and footballs. Boats race through the water. Yesterday, a man stood on some sort of surfboard-like thing, paddling with a long paddle. Gross, I kept thinking, watching him, what if he fell in? That river is disgusting. Today, two families of geese were out, paddling through the water. One family had seven little goslings, and they were visibly working harder than their parents to move through the water. Their whole little bodies wobbled from side to side as they swam.
As I crossed the bridge, talking on the phone to my mom, a guy in his twenties, carrying his world in an old backpack, called to me, "Hey, can I get a high-five for peeing off this bridge?" His friend, sitting on the ground on the other side of the walking path, laughed. I tried to finish the sentence I was in the middle of speaking to my mom, but I was horribly distracted.
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