This is a piece I wrote for my writing class:

Coffee Break

It is an ordinary chain coffee shop. Thousands of people walk in and out of the black metal framed doorway everyday and everyday thousands of people are utterly grateful to have their coffee. The smell of newspaper, and dark, robust coffee beckons people inside, tells them to sit and relax for as long as they like. If these walls could talk they would have a story for everyday. They would tell of conversations, relationships, people, luckily they don’t have to talk because there is always someone around to witness the stories as they happen.

There are very few occasions that have disrupted this calm collected environment, even momentarily, but one such event took place on a brisk autumn evening. It was the kind of evening where you can smell the weather changing from cool to colder. Outside the wind was blowing, pushing people inside where they could be comforted and warmed by dark French roast or Costa Rican blend. The warm, dim lights provided an inviting backdrop for a normal evening. A young couple was sitting at a small table in the back corner of the coffee shop talking quietly. The twenty or so other tables were littered with students talking, working on papers, reading books, and sipping coffee. The hiss of the cappuccino machine worked feverishly to drown out the ability to eavesdrop on any of the conversations. The baristas settled into their routine expecting an ordinary night of mixing modern day cocktails.

A loud sob suddenly interrupted everyone’s pristine silence. The young couple in the corner was arguing. The young man, Nathan, was trying frantically to comfort and quiet his girlfriend but it was too late, they had already attracted the attention of every person in the small coffee shop. She started stammering in between sobs, loud enough to shut the cappuccino machine up, “Nathan, I can NOT believe. . . you. . .are. . . ending it. After. . .four. . .years”. She suddenly realized how hurt and how angry she was and added with full control of her voice now, “and at a coffee shop?!” She calmly collected her things, her cup of coffee, in the cardboard cup with the environmentally safe sleeve to prevent your hands from being burned. She picked up her small designer handbag, searched for the car keys inside, took one last look at Nathan, turned and walked out the door. She never acknowledged the presence of the people staring at her. She just turned and left. Nathan as if surprised by her reaction pulled a small black cell phone out of his pocket and made a quick phone call, “Hey whater you doin? Can you come pick me up? No, the bitch just left me here.” He looked around to find that everyone’s eyes where rested on him and everyone’s ears where hanging on the words coming out of his mouth, “I will be outside”. He flipped his phone closed, picked up his empty coffee cup and walked out the door, leaving all of us, the voyeurs, in a stunned silence.

Everybody slowly went back to their business. People picked up their conversations where they had left them off. The clack of keyboards once again filled the air as the typing of term papers resumed. But for the next fifteen minutes they all stole glances out the tinted, floor to ceiling windows to see if Nathan was still waiting for his ride. A white truck pulled up and he climbed in through the passenger door and drove off, leaving the audience to their normalcy. The cappuccino machine resumed its noisy hissing, providing the comfort that things were indeed back to normal. The serenity had been interrupted for only a few moments but those few moments would change the rest of Nathan’s life, the rest of his girlfriend’s life and even the rest of the audience’s lives. The only object that remained unscathed was the coffee shop. Thousands of people will continue to walk through the black metal framed doorway everyday and everyday those people will be utterly grateful to have their coffee.

The Magnificent 7
apparently...ang is the only person who a) likes me and 2) reads my blog but I love her so here goes

7 things I want to do before I die
1. I want to graduate college
2. write and have published a book/novel
3. get married
4. have babies
5. find an appropriate way to thank my parents for everything they have ever done for me
6. live in a foreign country
7. learn how to spell

7 things I can do
1. I can touch my tongue to my nose
2. I can cook....pretty well
3. I can shop
4. I can write stories
5. I can tell jokes
6. I can whine like nobody's business
7. I can wiggle my eyes

7 things I cant do
1. I cant eat strange foods
2. I cant stand moths
3. I cant clean worth anything
4. I cant save money
5. I cant make decisions
6. I cant do confrontations
7. I cant go with out a plan

7 things that attract me to another person
1. a sense of humor
2. confidence
3. a sense of style
4. good conversations
5. a deep seeded love for movies
6. an open mind
7. flaws

7 things I say most often
1. "like your mom" (or any variant of such phrase)
2. "buuuuurn"
3. "Babe...."
4. "I dont wanna ____"
5. "GAH!"
6. "I cant believe your not ready yet"
7. "I dont like her"

In lieu of the elections tomorrow I thought I would repost an old blog...Remember vote NO for Prop.2 tomorrow 11/8...help make all men(and women) equal!!

Friday, May 06, 2005

Role Call
So Im very thankful to have grown up in the decade that I did grow up in, I consider myself a child of the 90's. Most of my formidable years happened in the 90's. I tend to think that I am very open minded and think of people as just that, people. I dont stare at people that have excessive tattoos or piercings, I dont get uncomfortable when I see two people of the same sex holding hands...everyone needs love right, I dont think that it is weird for a black man to marry a white woman or vice versa, I think it is fine if a woman wants to have an abortion, I think its fine if a women wants to be a single mother, I think its acceptable for a single man to raise a child, I think it is more than acceptable for a gay or lesbian couple to adopt or artifically inseminate themselves to have and raise a child, I think that it is wonderful to believe in something but you have to let people develop their own views, there is not one belief system and just because you think one way doesnt make everyone else wrong and that doesnt make you right. I think that what you do in the bedroom is your business and no one else's but if you want to tape it and share it with everyone that has $9.95 and access to the internet then you should damn well be able to, I think that if a girl wants to exploit her body that she should be able to, no one forces these girls to be strippers or work at hooters, it is their choice and they are makin damn good money from it. I think it is reasonable. Love knows no boundries and some people are into some weird shit but that is their bag, not mine so I just keep my mouth shut.

I was also raised in an agnostic home. I have never been baptised and probably never will be. My dad was/is catholic and my mother a methodist. We attended both churches every now and then, we went on the important holidays, Christmas and Easter. But christian views were not instilled deep in my soul. But I still have morals. I dont think I believe in God, I have certainly not experienced anything in my life that would force me into thinking there is a God, but at the same time I have not experienced anything that would force me into thinking that there is not a God. I believe in evolution, to think that one day we just appeared out of no where is ludicris. I believe that we go some where after we die but would I call it heaven or hell? No I dont think I would.I was also raised, and taught in school that church and state are seperate. I was taught that all men (as in mankind, not the sex) are created equal. That is what our country was founded on right? Our founding fathers made their way over here becasue they were tired of being persecuted against for their beliefs. We have no national religion, or language. We have (and to sound terribly cliche)a melting pot of cultures. We are a diverse group of people, Americans are. So why does what our president belive in matter? Just because religion dictates what is right and wrong in your moral life doesnt meant that it should play in to law making. Because I think this way, and because I was raised in the 90's I think it is scary to hear people shun and discriminate against everything I think is ok. How is the love that two women share for each other any different from the love a man and a women share for each other? Why should Gay couples not have the same rights as stright couples? I know damn well that my boyfriend knows my wishes better than my family but since we arent married, he would have no say if I died. Marriage is not a holy institution unless the bride and groom wish it to be. Marriage is a civil union, the only person(s) who have to recognize marriage is the state. You dont have to go and get a marriage license from God. If it was a holy union you wouldnt be able to just marry in a courtroom by the justice of peace, you would have to marry in a church in front of the clergy and have them approve your marriage. The truth of the matter is that if I wanted to get married tomorrow, I could run off to Vegas, Atlantic City (I think even Kentucky lets you) and get married on a whim, In a court house with no church members, or God present