The Deed is Done

What a day this is turning out to be! I'm sitting in a café, a little shop owned by a Jordanian living in mid-Missouri, connected to a wireless network with my laptop computer, writing a post for my blog. So very early 21st century, n'est pas?

The café is decorated with an old coffee grinder, an old roaster, several old silver and brass coffee services, two giant hookas and a series of sepia toned photographs of Old Jerusalem circa 1895. Aretha Franklin is playing on the stereo. Somehow it feels right.

The coffee is strong. The air smells of spices. I can watch people walking by on the sidewalk through the big picture windows, and there is a row of patrons sitting in plastic chairs lined up in front of the café. A couple of women, one, middle aged with a colorful tattoo on her arm that is partially hidden by the sleeve of her Grateful Dead t-shirt and the other with grey hair tied back into a loose bun, with a young but wise face, sit nose to nose right outside the door playing chess on a small wooden board with plastic pieces.

In contrast, right before I came here I was at the gym. I was committing to a year of membership. I realized that I was making excuses for not joining. Money being the biggest excuse. Time being the other excuse. Not enough of either. So, in the name of a healthier me, I joined the gym and I canceling my cable TV subscription. That will save me money and buy me time.

The place smells of chlorine and sweat and iron. The perky girls working the front desk are tanned and slim and oddly sincere. I think they truly enjoy their environment. The muscular guys walk in looking cocky, handsome and even arrogant, and they leave looking dazed, sweaty and spent. They sacrifice much for the look they've achieved. I have yet to talk with any of them. I know I'm operating from a stereotype that was formed by years of being the skinny un-athletic wimp in school and dreading gym class. I mean to change that. I mean to change a lot of things.

Just as a note, Aretha is gone from the sound system. Disraeli Gears is now playing. Sometimes it is good to have a little cream with your coffee. (Sorry. I couldn't help myself!)

So, it's a Saturday afternoon. I've spent money today, I've heard some fine music. I've committed myself to at least a year of workouts, sweat and, with some hard work and attention to diet, I'll get a healthier, better looking me in return. And I've been baptized into a level of the wired world that was cliché before it was invented: I've blogged in a café.