Dragged Back Against My Will
We’re not supposed to discuss work in the interweb world, so I will say this much: Today I am back at work. I was [see title].
Having some time away from the daily grind was frighteningly glorious. Frighteningly glorious because now I am left wondering exactly what the heck I am doing with my life. But hey. The price you pay.
So to reminisce for a moment, our office holiday party one year was in a private wine cellar in the basement of an upscale supermarket owned by a friend of my boss. It was a fun one, but the best part was that the bathrooms for us were the same bathrooms for use by customers and employees – i.e. the bathroom in the back of the frozen food section behind the dangling strips of clear plastic that keep the cold in. Which meant that we were making regular post-seal-breaking trips to said bathroom in our dresses and high heels, a tad bit of the tipsy. Ascending the stairs, we would emerge from the middle of the snack aisle as if by magic, and then stumble past dumbfounded housewives pushing shopping carts while we giggled at the ridiculousness of it all and weaved to the back of the building.
The wedding I attended this past weekend was similar in that it was held at the train station in downtown Los Angeles. This was an acutely adorable choice because my friend and her now-husband met while living on a train and working for the circus.
best party favor ever:
Though the inside of the train station itself is beautiful, it turns out it also has a lovely little courtyard.
The ceremony was beautiful, and the party was great, and seeing people I love is fabulous. But the best part might have been the clickety-clack of heels echoing in the hall as we walked past the rabble-rousers, cane-bearing old men, and tired parents laden with luggage and sleeping infants allllll the way to the public restrooms where those without homes come to shower their pits in the sink.
I live for these types of delicious juxtapositions. It is not entirely unlike the time we stopped at the Whole Foods down the street from where my grandma used to live, which is also down the street from where Scrubs shoots, to grab something to eat before her funeral. I was waiting in line for a measley little tamale behind a paper-scrubs costumed actor, tired and stressed as one is wont to be before a funeral, eyes a-roll, for him to settle on a meal from the deli that would satisfy his finicky needs. There is something wholly lovely and calming to me about the clashing of worlds and moods that jar us out of our moment and into to the larger picture that all kinds of things are happening everywhere all the time; at your happiest, someone is sad; on the most mundane day of your life, down the street is a life-changing event; at your fanciest, someone else is down and out. It’s fascinating, no?
At any rate, cheers to the happy couple. I couldn’t have been happier to be there. I know they will do well.
