Adulthood

This pretty much literally happened 10 minutes ago:

Adult me: I should load and run the dishwasher tonight.
Child me: Naw, don't worry about it. You just ran it a few days ago.
Adult me: I really should - I don't have many clean dishes, and no bowls, which I could use in the morning to eat cereal.
Child me: Don't worry about it - you can buy breakfast at work.
Adult me: Yeah, but that's more expensive, plus I already have milk and cereal.
Child me: Fine, you don't have to buy breakfast, but you can just wash a bowl by hand in the morning.
Adult me: Yeah, but that's almost more work than loading the dishwasher now and then everything will be clean.
Child me: Don't worry about it. It's not a big deal. Run it tomorrow. You look tired anyway.
Adult me: This is silly. It's going to take me like 60 seconds to load and start the dishwasher. I'm just going to do it now.
Child me: You are soooo tired. Forget about it. The dishwasher doesn't even do that good a job.
[I load the dishwasher and decide to run it.]
Child me: That was ridiculous. You could have been asleep by now.
Adult me: No, it's worth it. I will be glad I did it in the morning. This is what being an adult is all about - thinking about the consequences of my actions (or inaction) and acting accordingly.
Child me: Well look at you; you're all growns up! Aren't you so mature.
Adult me: I think I did do pretty well. I resisted you and your temptations. Maybe I am growing up.
Child me: Oh yeah, you are definitely so grown up. Why don't you go blog about how adult you are.
Adult me: Fine, maybe I will!

...somehow I still feel like Child Me won...

Winter city love

One of my favorite new things is wandering around an urban setting that is buried in snow at night, taking in the beauty and shooting bad photos. There is something really unique about a metropolis that is completely covered in snow. The silence is somehow freeing (how can it be so quiet with so many people?), few drivers dare brave the roads, and instead people take over the streets since the sidewalks are a disaster of ice and deep snow. The lighting is surreal - I'm still not used to how lit up cities are at night, and the snow reflects the light and gives everything a warm but eerie glow. I think I could stay up all night, meandering down un-plowed side streets of Center City and South Philly, absorbing all the snowy wonders, but alas, I must get some shut eye.

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Now playing: John Mayer - City Love
via FoxyTunes

Frozen time

I absolutely love it when it snows. One of my favorite things to do is go for a walk along a lit street at night while the snow is falling. Snow seems to absorb sound, so you are left with this incredibly beautiful and peaceful experience of snow falling in silence from the black void that is the sky. In a movie I watched tonight called Cashback, the protagonist learns that he can freeze time, and in the last scene of the movie, he freezes time to share his experience with his lover. They run out into the snow, but since time is frozen, the snow is not falling, but is instead suspended in air. I found the whole concept amazing - running through snow that is hanging in sapce. As the lovers look back, they can see their silhouettes through the snow that is paused in time. It's such a fun and imaginative twist on an experience that I already enjoy so much. If only I could channel Zack Morris and freeze time when the snow comes tomorrow night.

Watch from about 3:30:



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Now playing: Remy Zero - Fair
via FoxyTunes

The good side of a horrible day

I think the best part of a horrible day is that it puts everything else in perspective. And if nothing else, tomorrow is very likely going to turn out better than today. So even if it's a below average day, it's still going to be a big improvement on today and therefore feel like an awesome day.

I should have known today was going to suck when I woke out of a dream of being in a plane crash (literally shivering cold because I'd forgotten to turn the heat on last night). The dream - strike that - nightmare - shook me up for a few minutes, especially since I'm flying tomorrow, on a little plane, right before (hopefully before) a Nor'easter hits Philadelphia. But the day quickly turned much worse. I had slept in, to recover from my first indoor soccer game of the season, so I was running late for work. I checked my Blackberry before heading out the door to discover that I had a voice mail from my boss, which I quickly realized was in response to an angry email from one of my nicest and favorite client contacts. She had apparently thought we were going to send her several deliverables the night before or first thing this morning. Somewhere this expectation got lost in translation, but it meant I spent the day incredibly stressed, rushing to get her things as quickly as possible. I never got around to breakfast, and barely had a chance to scarf down some cheap Chinese. And in the rush of the day, I never had time to mail something I'd sold on eBay that I had promised I would mail within two days of payment - two days ended today, of course. But that was small fry all things considered.

Then, when the day was finally winding down, I got a strange call from a friend. He told me that a lady friend of ours thought that I hadn't gotten the message that she wasn't interested in me. I'm not exactly sure what was said between them, but apparently I've made her uncomfortable or come on too strong or something. This struck me as quite odd and frustrating since I had just been trying to be friendly. I can see in retrospect how a couple texts I sent may have come off wrong, but as my friend put it, "I can't see you ever coming on too strong." I really liked hanging out with this girl, but I wasn't particularly romantically inclined. I suppose now unfortunately things will be weird for a while. This would naturally be the same girl who called me around midnight a couple Saturdays ago to drive her to the grocery store in order to get ingredients for the communion bread, which needed to be baked for the next day's service. I know - I'm as puzzled as you are. I make her uncomfortable, but she calls me to drive her to a sketchy grocery store in South Philly in the middle of the night? I mean, I was happy to do it - I just can't make sense of it all. But then, not much made sense today.

Tomorrow is going to be a good day; I am convinced it will be better than today. Thank God for the good days, or at least the less than awful days.

Then again, if I die in a fiery plane crash tomorrow, it will probably be a worse day than today. I just want everyone to know this. I love y'all, and I'll drive any one of you to the grocery store in the middle of the night if you really need it.

And now I need to do some work. And then I need to pack...