Commuter Content (A.M.)

Starting the day off

October 2015

5:30am. Perform basic, hazy functions. Pull down heathered white cotton t-shirt. Pull up skinny black jeans. Cool baristas have more credibility. Even if they are terrible at latte art. Slip phone into backpack. Grab helmet. Walk bike quietly out door. Roommates won’t be up for at least another hour.

My tires rustle over loose gravel in the road. A light, exhaust-less breeze brushes my face. Cicadas trill over the vacant hum of AC units. Street lamps wreath LeDroit’s historic, spired townhomes in glossy amber. I pedal in a dreamy twilight, some somnolent fog.

There is no restaurant to open. No 11-hour shift. No panic of no health insurance. Not yet. Not for the next 0.7 miles.

October 2018

It’s 7:11am. A little later than I’d like. Put on one of four work chinos and one of four gingham plaid shirts. A belt. A tie. The endless business possibilities. Grab the breakfast cup of Icelandic yogurt, organic honey, and farmer’s market strawberries from the fridge. Most important meal of the day. Or something. Kiss my wife of 5 months goodbye at the front door.

Listen to Morning Edition in the car. Get worked up about something the President said about immigrants or the odious way he says “many people are saying”. Change over to a podcast where I learn about a thing on my Edify-Yourself list. Think of a better mindset for the day. Or just binge late 90’s pop again. Rage against the guy who turned on his left blinker too late and wait behind him while he yields for oncoming traffic.

It takes 40 minutes to go twelve miles.

October 2021

Anywhere between 8:00am and 9:00am. Crumple out of bed like garbage unloading from a dump truck. Trudge over to the kitchen in boxers. Scroll through NBA Twitter. WaPo. CNN. Anti-vaxxer. War. Natural disaster. In Buechner’s words, the grim recital. Heat water in the gooseneck kettle for pour-over. Do the dishes from last night and set up HBO’s Ballers on the iPad next to the fruit basket. Pour hot water over the coffee grounds and watch The Rock do things while wearing a suit.

Check for any meetings where I need to be on video. Find a different shirt that doesn’t look like I slept in it. Forget to fix my hair or wipe the crust out of my eyes.

Sit in the swivel office chair from Amazon. Open my email. Click the Zoom link.

Press 1 to enter the room.