I used to think the stars were untouchable. Even on my father's shoulders, I barely reached the clouds. And let's be honest, my pockets were overfilled with earthworms and dandelions. But then you were there, fading in and out of my life at will. I emptied my pockets of childish groves and filled them with prayers scared you would go shooting off across the sky, leaving me in your burned out trail. Maybe you found me a bit bizarre, eyes wide as telescopes. Yet, I could see you clearer than anyone else. But when I put a ring around you, you no longer felt like a star. The Saturn-like ring weighed you down and your passion burned out. There's reason passions are plenty, like stars they dot across darkness. I was never meant to hold a star. I know that now. Far too many have already burned out. I guess some things are better to admire from afar.
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Suck it up. I’m going to be making a lot of puns. But now you’re going to have to pay to read some of my puns. That’s right, I get to make puns for my job! Not only that, but they want me to use cheesy assonances and alliterations to make children’s activity books more fun for kids! If you are a parent, you can totally groan and roll your eyes, but when you are doing activity books with your kids, you are going to be thanking me for the slight cheesy reprieve of your day. I’m not really sure how much of my job I can talk about, but here’s the summary. I am pulling together graphics, text, and themes to encourage children to exercise different components of their brain and emphasize higher learning. (That’s big fancy talk for I get to work on compiling pieces for kid’s activity books.) The people are great. My bosses have already laughed at my puns. They have shown me around the town and pointed out a few hiking trails that I can walk. Also, they are all doing this walking initiative, so that means we are all being encouraged to go outside and walk for lunch. My office is right next to town, so I can always wander around the comic book store, antique shops, or boutiques during my lunch break. Or, the nerd I am, go to the park and find Poke Stops and probably pick up an Evee or Nidoran. They always put lures on the stops at my lunch hour. Also, I found out that my office mate plays. She is kind of quiet, but she got excited when she found out I played. As nerdy as you may think it is, if it helps me bond with people in my office I am going to own it! I haven’t really done much else yet besides shopping for groceries and listening to an audiobook in my apartment. The new book Whiskey Tango Foxtrot started out really strong, but ended up being this abstract conspiracy theory about the power of technology. When picking audiobooks, I always go for character driven novels or easy reads. I save the thick beautiful prose writing for hardcovers. If you have any good recommendations let me know! But I do have a small window of audiobooks because I get them from my online library. The weekend rolled around and let’s just say I was a bit wary of it starting, because all I had on my agenda were errands. It’s hard trying to figure out what to do when you know no one and don’t know where to start. I mean everyone has been super nice and given me ideas of things to do, but it’s a lot harder jumping into doing those things when you have no one to go with. I started off going to an artist event. Apparently they have this famous artist event across the Poconos. There are 14 stops, but they aren’t in one place like I’m used to from Illinois. It took my ten times to find where a single stop was. The directions are barely visible and I ended up walking through an elementary school. That’s the other thing for living alone in a new place, I feel like I am trespassing everywhere. But I ended up looking at some pretty long-exposure photography (so totally worth the trip). Then, I didn’t know what to do. I ended up at the park reading a book. So the park is a block down from my office, both running parallel to Main Street. As the sun set, I decided to walk over and see what kind of night life was on Main Street. All I found was pizza places open, bars with a bunch of old people, and everything else was dark. It was like chasing lightning bugs. Every time you get close the light is out and the bug is flying away. Then, I got excited. The lights were on at a coffee shop, a shop that I had thought closed at 8:00 p.m. so I moved toward it with the reserve and awe of people in movies moving toward a UFO light. When I reached the store front, I saw catered food inside and a trio of musicians and stopped. A couple was sitting in front of the window, letting the street darken swell around them, infused with smooth jazz. (Apparently, I am destined to crash a bunch of jazz events this month.) I peered in and asked them if they knew what was going on. They said they didn’t, but I should go in anyways and if anyone asks just say I know Bill (a guy in the band). With their encouragement, I stepped over the threshold. It was like I was walking into Narnia and I was wondering if I was going to run into Aslan or the Wicked Witch. I walked straight for the food. I wasn’t hungry, I just wanted to feel like I belonged and at any event you need food or a drink in your hands or else you’ll look out of place. I grabbed a few pita chips, and then was caught. I felt like a kid caught with their hand in a cookie jar. Two people asked who I was and I shoved my hand across the heavy spread of meats, cheese, and cheesecake to shake theirs. I muttered something about knowing Bill, but the confusion in their eyes made me give up. I basically admitting to gate crashing. Suddenly this girl appeared out of nowhere and all of a sudden she heard I was gate crashing and she was ecstatic. Her enthusiasm at my gate crashing made it seem all right that I had just walked in on a party for people who invested in the coffee shop. Great, now I was not just intruding on Honesdale, but a party for people who had actually done something to support someone. (Though I did note that I would probably be supporting this coffee shop in the months to come.) But hey, I made friends and now have a place to go where I know people. When I walked back outside the couple who had encouraged me to go in heard what happened and we all laughed about it. But that gatecrashing has gotten me a few friends and I now have people with whom I can go hiking and play Mario Kart. They also invited me to a comedy event going on the next night, which was good for small town talent. Then, I went to see what else was going on, stopping to get ice cream. They have walk-thru ice cream shops everywhere in town where you can get a cone for $1. I’m a sucker for dollar items. Everyone so far had encouraged me to go to the bar Twisted Rail. So I moseyed on over there (all the way across the street.) I saw my first ShotzSki—where they line the shots up on a ski shoe thingy. The thing I found out about small town bars is that everyone knows everyone. So, I slyly introduced myself to someone. Okay, not so slyly. I am a very awkward human being. I basically turned around and said hi and they responded with “Oh hey, you know I’m getting beer.” But that led to me being introduced to half the bar—sorry not the people taking the Shotski—and hearing about different kinds of farming in the area, getting made fun of for moving to Honesdale, and getting lists of things to do in town. Saturday, I went on a hike, but I picked the wrong day since there were no clouds in the sky. Don’t worry I’ll be going back. I sat up on the cliff and listened to the town. Back in Streamwood, I can hear the drone of traffic, and sitting up on the cliffs overlooking town, I could hear it all. All the street traffic, the train coming in from Holly, and the twitter of birds. It’s those secluded moments of soaking in the beauty of the world that makes me feel like I just might survive here. So my takeaways from the week are:
It's official. I've moved out and away from Chicago, which I may regret, to take on the small town. By small town, it's bigger than my college town, but it's still so small that there isn't even a Starbucks here. I packed my car "to the gills" as my mother said, and started on the 12 hour car ride. My emotions seemed to rise and fall as much as the roads. I am used to Illinois and Indiana roads, so the hills were warmly welcomed. As soon as I reached the edge of Ohio, I knew I was in love with the rolling hills. Pennsylvania is abundantly green and so different than the solid stretch of land that Illinois and Indiana are known for. Honesdale is pretty small. You know those old historic towns that have old shops and one main street? Well, I live in one of those towns now. This would be scary for me, a city girl, but luckily I love antique shops. That means that I just have to make sure I'm not spending my entire paycheck on antiques that I have no space for in my apartment. Well, I mean I have room for them on the floor but no shelving space. My first look at my apartment was with mixed feelings. You know those hotels that are quaint but smell a little and have really old appliances? Welcome to my life for the next year. But what I love is the fact I have a bunch of floor space in my bedroom and lots of light comes in the windows. So, if you know my mother, we aren't going to spend my first day sitting inside my apartment. She dragged us out to a county fair. I was in a dress because it was too hot in my apartment, and of course I was the only person in a dress. So we dredged through the mud (this is not an exaggeration, it's been raining a lot) to ride a few rides, grab overpriced but oddly good food, and see farm animals. Last week I was walking past the sky rises in Chicago, and this week I'm walking through hay to see animals. It's funny how quickly life can change. So if you have any tips on being a country girl in the east, let me know. Until then, I'll be away in my wifi-less apartment trying to find places to store my myriad of books. So, I needed a little city, so I took my parents to Scranton. That is the nearest city. No, I don't live near Philly or Pittsburgh. I needed to bring my love of The Office a step further. I went to the mall they go to and found the divy Poor Richard's Pub which is actually a bar in a bowling alley. My family and I also toured the locomotive factory. Scranton was the main changing line for the trains meaning it had a turntable and a huge factory for fixing the trains. They forgot to mention the impact steam engines had on the town in The Office, but that's probably because they didn't have Sheldon Cooper there with such a strong interest. Though, Dwight should be interested in trains, but he's only interested in training his body for random attacks. Though the towns around here are sure enthusiastic about trains. I've already eaten at two restaurants with trains riding around them. My favorite part of Scranton was the Cathedral. After touring Europe, I'm obsessed with Cathedrals. They are so interesting to me to see the architecture and how art and structure influences worship. So while I'm admiring the rounded arches and the paintings that adorn the ceiling, my mother is in the back of the church looking at the people in line. She looks at me and asks, "Are they waiting in line for the bathroom?" I just look at her and laugh responding with, "Mom, they are waiting for confessions!" In her defense, she grew up Methodist. Well, I've been using up all my free time at Dunkin Donuts (what I do for wifi, coffee, and hidiing from rain). I start work tomorrow at Highlights, so I'll post more about that later this week, or maybe once I get my internet installed. Until then, I'm going to go enjoy the beautiful clouds and rolling hills. |
AuthorCorrie Thompson is a writer, blogger, avid reader, and photographer. Follow her poetry on instagram: @mis.underwood Archives
July 2023
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