January 2024

The Girl on the Train

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Traveling with Elise was a trip.  People stared. And then they pointed. And then they chuckled. The more you watched, the more you saw that was just a little bit off center. Or a lot.

Image “Anywhere” by Haylee Morice at hayleemorice.com

For instance, who travels with potted plants and decorates their train seat with twinkle lights? Feeds their cat cake with a bowl of cream, of course?

Now many people wear their slippers on the train, I know I do. But their jammies and comfy sweater four sizes too big? 

Elise was born eccentric. It wasn’t something she became, and it wasn’t something she grew out of. It was her core personality. Part of it was based on her desire to be comfortable and part of it was based on her personal ideology that home was wherever she was.

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Old Love

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You are sitting in the hotel downtown waiting for your lover to arrive. The snowfall is alarming, and you know he hates driving in adverse conditions. The weather this Valentine’s Day is nothing but adverse conditions, but you pleaded with him.

“Please! I want to see you!” And you do, but you want to wear your new outfit just as much as you want to see him. You peer out the window and sigh. With or without him, you are going to your prix fixe dinner reservation. You are stuck in town with the snow and there’s no safe way to get home. You ponder how to get across the street to the restaurant in stiletto heels.

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A Very Bad Thing

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Photo by Bruno Nascimento on Unsplash

In 7th grade, maybe eighth grade, my best friend and I decided to go out for track. 

I don’t know why.  Neither of us were the least bit athletic and the only thing I can imagine is that the running craze was starting in the US.  So, there we were: two extremely skinny girls standing in the hot North Carolina sun waiting for Mrs. Anders to start track practice.  Within minutes we learned that showing up was all it took to be on the team. 

With no further ado, she set us to running laps.  This was late August in coastal Carolina.  It wasn’t just hot, it was need-to-grow-gills-to-breathe hot and humid.  Miserable.  And this was in the days when it was believed that drinking water while exercising was a Bad Thing.  A Very Bad Thing.

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