Good morning. ♥️

I took myself on a coffee date this morning and recorded some thoughts. From observing humanity to my love for airports and what I never regret spending money on, here is my mind, spilled for you.

COFFEE SHOP THOUGHTS

I’m at one of the first coffee shops that I ever loved as a teenager. I used to ditch my last class to come here and read or write while batting eyes at the edgy baristas with their band tees and black nail polish, trying desperately to conceal the fact that I was only sixteen. Now I’m a barista, which, I have to admit, does take some of the magic out of the whole coffee shop experience. Once you know exactly how simple it actually is to make that latte, you can’t really bring yourself to fork over the seven dollars for it. But I come anyway. I come to read and write and observe humanity. I’m not paying for a coffee, I’m paying for that. Or at least, that’s what I tell myself. I also make embarrassing efforts to be as nice as possible to my coffee makers. When I walked in today, for example, the guy was busy and told me that he would be with me shortly. I was all too eager to say those magical words that I promise will make any service worker’s day: take your time. Also, if you’re curious, my order today was an oat cafe au lait. Here’s what I’m thinking about as I drink it.

This poem that I read the other day. Particularly the line, the heart can only remain a mystery for so long. It reminds me of the conversation I had with my neighbor a few months back about the intensity with which we feels things when we are young and about how immense the world feels when you know nothing about it.

The man wearing the political t-shirt two tables over. I am dying to know what corner of America he has crawled over from and if he knows what neighborhood he is in. He won’t make it two blocks down these streets without one of the countless hipsters with blue hair and a septum ring fainting right in front of him, pulling their canvas tote and oat latte down with them.

The cute young couple with a baby sitting next to me who are currently quizzing the poor child quite intensely on the world around her. What color is this? What’s that over there? What makes that sound? And this color? What about that one? This is what you do with babies, I know. But how funny it is to observe anyway, the urgency with which we indoctrinate young minds into the seeing the world in the correct way. These parents are orienting their child within our world, the world where leaves are green and the sky is blue. And that made me think about how I am, sitting here writing about them, doing the same thing. I’m recording my environment as it is appearing before me. I’m telling you what color my world is today.

THE MAGIC OF AIRPORTS

In other news, I fly to New York next week. This might be strange, but getting to go the airport is one of the most exciting parts of any trip for me. I think that most people loathe the airport. They see it as the necessary means with which they must deal with in order to travel. There’s a lot of waiting around and even more that can go wrong and it’s generally a place where one feels pretty out of control. But I love it. I love waking up ridiculously early and getting to the airport just as the sun is coming up, with sleepy eyes and a cup of coffee. And I love the waiting. The waiting is the best part. It gives me time to observe, and what better place to observe humanity than the airport? I wander up and down the gates and read where all of the planes are heading and look around to see who is going to Michigan, Hawaii, San Antonio, Seattle. Do they look like they are coming or going? And why? Not to mention your own gate. Who are the people that you will be sealed inside of a torpedo with, 35,000 feet up in the air, for the next five hours? A cute guy? A grandma who will show you pictures of her grand babies? Newlyweds? It’s enthralling. All the more so when you are trekking alone.

THINGS I SPEND MONEY ON

I also just think that traveling is one of the best ways to spend your money. What I mean by that is that there are some things that I refuse to feel bad about buying. Books, clothes, healthy food, and plane tickets are among those things. Why? Because I see them all as investments. Books, because obviously. Clothes, because they allow you to express yourself creatively and figure out how you want to present yourself to the world. They’re art. Health food because your body is your home and you never get another one. And plane tickets because you are buying an experience that you will have forever. You’re buying an opportunity to better understand the world around you and gain perspective on just how grand and sprawling and diverse it truly is. It forces you out of your comfort zone and reveals who you really are, when all routine and sense of comfort falls away. They say that couples either break or grow stronger after traveling together for that very reason. I can attest to this, considering that I broke up with my last boyfriend the same week that we returned from a trip together. But the point is, you get so much more back from travel than you could ever put a price on. I always come home feeling richer.

much love, m.

JOIN THE FUN

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