can't get no satisfaction.

Today is a rather crackerjack day in the land of Jenna Leigh. To start, it is snowing out and the School District of Philadelphia beneficently called a snow day for all us tired and overworked school folk (hooray!!) I spent most of my morning cleaning house and being remarkably productive on the home front, eventually to wind up here, in one of my very favorite coffee houses in the world: Milkboy Coffee in Ardmore. I am currently nestled in the corner of the café, enjoying a hot cup of African rooibos and a delicious plate of grilled cheese with pickles (yes, pickles) and Sicilian couscous. As I nibble on my fare, Radiohead's The Bends sounding softly through the speakers overhead, I ponder my existence for a fleeting moment... who am I other than some insignificant being floating in limbo amongst all these strangers sipping their espressos and wiping their mouths with little paper napkins? Am I serving my purpose? What is my purpose, anyway?! Who knows... and this grilled cheese tastes way too good to get lost in a thought like that, anyhow.

So here I am, procrastinating the hours of lesson planning that loom overhead, desperately seeking that spark of inspiration that lingers somewhere in the back of my mind. I can feel it; I can taste it on the back of my tongue but it dances there and taunts me from a distance. By now I am moving on to a hot cappuccino, vindictively injecting my brain with a jolt of caffeine to coerce the creative juices into flowing. The soundtrack above has switched to a live album of Simon and Garfunkel, and I think it better suits my humor, peaceful but with a hint of longing...

I just noticed a couple of male eyes peering at me from over their respective laptop screens. I must say, in my beat-up Lynyrd Skynyrd tee, my skintight AA winter leggings and my mum's old "rocker chick" boots, I do look pretty bad ass (okay, I have to giggle a little at that). It cannot hurt that this morning I officially booked a trip to Scandinavia with my sissy - I am sure my face is glowing with the prospect of travel and new adventures, as it always does on such occasions. I cannot wait for our trip. I am trying so very hard to be content in the here and now but my restless soul cannot help but dream of faraway places. "Cause in my head there's a greyhound station where I send my thoughts to far off destinations so that might have a chance of finding a place where they're far more suited than here..." (Death Cab for Cutie's "Soul Meets Body," but if you didn't already know that you need to open your ears). Hmm... I might just have a photograph I'd like to take to go along with that. It is so... "me." Incessantly wanting more, feeling like I belong somewhere else. How does one go about remedying that? Appeasing a seemingly insatiable appetite for the new, the strange, the exciting? I wish I knew how. I am this fatal combination of the simple and the complicated; someone who wants nothing and everything to do with this world, happy on my own yet desperately seeking communion in this complex, lonely universe. It is a very troublesome sort of person to be, let me tell you. But alas, it is through these eyes and with this heart that I experience this life, and it is at times like these I am so glad I have you, my dear. Thank you for enjoying this lazy snow day with me. Thank you for listening to me when I feel trivial, unimportant and unnoticed. You are my everything.