Picture this: I’m sitting at a table just outside the action in a bar in Darling Harbour, drunk on one too-expensive vodka soda and one-too-many cups of pregame goon. My head’s spinning. I rest it on my hand to prevent it from swiveling off my neck.
"You always told me I wasn't allowed to pet the strays!" my teen sister said, indignant. "What about all their 'diseases?'" "Sydney's lived a good life," my mom replied. And I have. That good life is made noticeably better by the presence of cats.
"Travel" has come to mean a very different thing to me since I moved home after my college graduation and started my first corporate job. I still daydream about sandy beaches, glittering city skylines, a backpack full of dirty laundry, and that rounded rectangular view out an airplane window. But for now, I settle for weekend getaways to old haunts that are within a reasonable driving distance.
I submitted a list of things I like to Jessica Gross's happiness project, Things We Like, and she liked it too! Things We Like is an ongoing project aimed at collecting good vibes. Contributors compile a list of ten (10) hyper-specific little joys in their life.
I wondered then, not for the first time, if Amy hated me. Why couldn't I be more like Barb at the chair next to me who knew exactly which questions were appropriate to ask her stylist about her bunions? For that matter, why didn't I just ask Amy a damn question?
My concert tee was tucked neatly into my destroyed jean shorts and my right leg was tattooed with bike chain grease. With my iced beverage in my left hand and my handlebars controlled coolly in the right, it occurred to me that I couldn’t look more like a middle schooler if I tried.
I'm not very good at getting started. In fact, I've gotten up and done four unnecessary tasks since typing that first sentence. Two of those tasks were cups of coffee and two were the resulting bathroom breaks.
Sydney Hartle 