Living in the Present

I had a friend come over last night, and it turned out to be quite an adventure. She's never been to my new apartment and has difficulty with directions so she followed me home from work [Adventure #1]. We were pretty hungry for dinner at that point, so i started cooking up a quick box meal, put it in an 8x8 glass pan, and cooked in the oven at 400 degrees for the specified time. We sat outside on a couch perched on the deck, chatting about life and her recent dating irritations. Upon the timer ringing, we went back in and found a disaster in the oven. Apparently my glass container shattered [Adventure #2].

I turned off the oven, and we went out to eat. WoOt! We walked there, which was a bit adventure, because of the way the buildings are set up, and we walked into a 10 foot drop... luckily not before we saw it. We ate at Noodles & Co. which is one of my favorite places. My friend had never been there [Adventure #3]. She chatted on about boys again and at some point i interrupted and said, "So what do you think about the food?" She seemed to snap out of her trance and say, "Oh, um, it's really good! I think it's my new favorite restaurant too!"

On the way home, we stopped at Paradise Cafe (another one of my favorites, and a new place for her) and got a free chocolate chip cookie with a coupon i had, and we split it. She was very impressed. "I should take my mom out to eat here." [Adventure #4]

By the time we walked back to my apartment (5 min), she had created and solidified plans with other friends... boys included... and needed to leave to make it there on time. She invited Dave and I, but we're too broke for a theater movie right now, and i told her that upfront.

Looking back on the evening, I see many adventures worth noting that evening, but what stuck out to me the most this time, is her apparent utter lack in acknowledging the amount of wild fun we had. I can imagine her going to the movies with her other friends and saying to them, "Oh, i just went and saw Keshia. I was at Keshia's and Dave's Apartment." with no further detail. Because in her mind, nothing exciting happened.

The saddest part about this is that there are hundreds of people who live their lives this way. So focused on what they don't have that they miss everything they do have; always looking for a better time when a great one is right in front of them.