I was on the dollar van a few nights ago. It was cold. It was late. The Ave had that weird , sorta unsettling energy that it usually does. Im scrunched up tightly in a corner , simply wanting to get the hell outta there.

“Q FIVE…………Q FIVE!…YES MISS..Q FIVE!” yelled the dude in front of me . as he shuffled in one more passenger into this nearly filled van. My thought? “hurry up and get ya ugly ass in this van”. Let’s pause here. Late at night when I’m tired?? I’m a grumpy bitch. If I’m not doing something fun (imagine fun things) and its late.. I just wanna go to sleep.

Back to the story. So I’m staring out into the night at her and I’m WILD annoyed (god I’m such a dick.). She gets in and I see her face in the light and I go “wait….she’s beautiful.”. Puffy cheeks. Long honey brown locs. Inviting but very focused gaze. I’m temporarily……..smitten? Not my style at all. My annoyance totally relieves for a few secs and I quickly put her out of mind.

As the ride goes on , it hits me that the moment is perfect. I’m headed home , I’m warm , the van driver isn’t trying to kill us. Fantastic. It’s been a rough (few weeks) month. The stress of a break up. The excitement and promise of a new internship. Career stress. All of the re-aligning and new mindset required for all of that. I think through all that’s occurred recently , I’ve seen the beauty in things I usually wouldn’t. I live very “quickly”. I’m always rushing and pushing. I always feel pressed for the time. Being forced to make drastic changes to how I spend my time has made me look at myself and decide what matters and what do I want to put time towards.

And I’d like to put time towards never riding a dollar van again. And scoring a chick with locs. YEAH.