To the sleeping boy on the train

You seemed so peaceful. Collapsed over your abdomen, caved from the pressure of another day. Relaxed finally. Your forest green sleeves are pushed up to reveal your forearms, the left one curled in your lap included a brightly colored tattoo of a woman. While your eyes were closed, she watched over you, keeping track of the other passengers who stood too close to your sleeping form. You didn't wake when commuters crowded your space. You didn't wake when the train attendant tried to shake you to consciousness. You probably didn't hear her over the din of your headphones or the rattle of the train. She rattled your shoulders, attempted to uncurl your fingers wrapped around your backpack. You were so drowned in sleep that she couldn't bring you back to the surface. She turned to me, checked my ticket, and returned to your side. She called to you across the void, rattled your shoulders again as your eyelids fluttered to the present. Your dug your torn wallet out of your pocket, found the needed ticket stub, and checked your watch. Long past time to get off this train. You blinked hard and waited for the next stop, only to wait and retrace your sleeping steps on the other side of the platform. 

Crystal light

But not like the stuff you put in your water. Ok let me explain. 

Yesterday I met with a professor in the department. We have to write a paper about someone's scholarly trajectory, but at least we picked the person to talk about. 

We sat down in her office and she began to tell me the story of how she came to do communication studies. Weaving in and out of her narrative were these ideas of staying true to who you are, being consistent with what you believe. At the very end of the hour she talked about how from one angle, a crystal has many facets, they each are a little differently shaped, each refracts light a little different direction. This imagery comes from Tracy and Trethewey (2005).  But in her view (and I believe she cited an idea from a dissertation not her own. I wish I remembered her name), a crystal emits its own central light, something from its core. People may perceive that light differently depending on how that shines in their direction, but the core remains unchanged. 

Maybe it's an apt metaphor for the day and the beginning of the school year. There's something innate about you, about me as individual people. Beings in this world of light. The goal then is to know how to maintain that fire, keep the self preservation strong and keep true to your own light. 

Keep your light friends. Let other people deal with how they see it. 

If only the suit fit, Cinderella.

To the man on the train who caught my attention- 

I see you in that suit. Looking elegant in a standard black. I see you sans wedding ring and wonder what the occasion must have been for tall dark and handsome to wander this way on public transportation.  I'll wait until you turn around. 

Your tie is loosened, it is the same one you probably had from high school when your date told you she was wearing a black and white dress to prom. The suit is new, your mother insisted when you went to college that you get one where the sleeves were as long as your still growing arms were. Unfortunately, she didn't account for the shoulders. So it gaps in weird places, it drapes where it shouldn't, and makes you look like you were playing dress up instead of going to that possible interview. You probably should have shaved for that. The part on your right jaw line that doesn't quite grow in makes me wonder if you're 16 and too tall, or 18 and embarrassed. Either way, you're too young to date. 

So good day to you, may you travel smartly in your new suit. There is a tailor at the next stop. 

Sports ball

Yesterday in a strange turn of events, I made the uncharacteristic decision to go to a professional football game. Granted it was a preseason game and the tickets were pretty cheap and I went with 3 other people from the office, but professional football it was! 

We drove to the Arizona Cardinals game against the Denver Broncos, skipping through traffic and giggling about professors and students along the way. Eventually we were close enough to the stadium that we stopped to eat. Where else? But a nearly deserted and yet still fabulous Waffle House. So over breakfast food, we noshed and drank coffee causing an utter disturbance to the staff because there were no other patrons. None the less, it was delicious in the way that you should be ashamed, but really aren't. 

Eventually we made it to the stadium, frolicking in the parking lot briefly, then joining the other extreme sports fans in the nose bleed section. We cheered adamantly about something though none of us were really paying attention to the actual game. At one point we were so adamant in our cheering sportness, the woman sitting in front of us left. She never came back. 

The Cardinals won, though I couldn't come close to giving you a play by play of how that happened. None the less, even boring (or events not particularly aligned with my interests) can be made fun through hanging out with the right crew. Thanks friends for laughing at the sports ball with me.