Beautiful Things Seen Around Town
I sat quietly in the corner of the local coffee shop, tapping away at my computer as I attempted to tackle the mountain of ESOL work sitting in front of me. It was a bright, sunny, thousand-degree day, as per usual in this part of the world in August, and in my two years of life here, this had become a common retreat from the heat for my days off when adventures elsewhere were not calling. It was lunch time, so the building was buzzing with the sounds of adults vying for their midday caffeine fix. A clearly-exhausted man in scrubs stood at the back of the line, leaning on an empty chair as he waited for his turn to order. Groups of teenagers stormed in, escaping from the clutches of their overbearing parents for an hour or two. Overworked mothers tried to juggle trays full of cups, strollers, and raucous toddlers hell bent on creating as much chaos as their tiny hands could conjure. For an hour, my usually-peaceful retreat is transformed into a revolving door of laughter, hollered ...