Pat West

I met Ms. Pat West in Vons grocery store on a cold night awhile back. To give some background on my mental state, I hate grocery shopping; in fact, I wish I could just be done with the bother of food and get fed through an IV. On this particular night, I was in full-blown whine mode and escalating towards an adult tantrum while my boyfriend pushed me around in the cart and patiently ignored me.

Down the home supplies aisle, I noticed an elderly lady patting her coat pockets and looking on the shelves for something.

All Natural

A few months ago we had a healthy eating presentation at my company. I happen to work in an office overrun with active, nutrition-conscious people, so it was a well-attended session. I personally prefer to exist on candy and burritos, but I was in one of my guilty “I’ve got to take better care of myself” phases and was ready to expand my horizons.

Grown Up

I love being an adult. Some people like to moon over the golden, worry-free playgrounds of days gone by, but not me. I always chafed under the constraints of childhood; I didn’t have a problem with authority, I was just stubborn and liked to do what I liked to do. When my parents—as parents everywhere—would say “you can do whatever you want when you’re grown up, but for now you’ll follow my rules” I remember burning with resentment at their unreasonable demands to clean my room or share with my sister and thinking “I can’t wait, you’ll be sorry you didn’t let me spread my wings earlier.” Turns out, most of their guidance was fundamentally needed, but the 10-year-old version of me was right to presume that I’d love the freedom of being a grown up.

Sensitivity about cases

Something that consistently annoys me is the random capitalization of words. Granted, copywriting is my profession, but we’re talking about a basic grammar rule here.  Just to review, proper nouns should be capitalized—specific people, places and things like Joe, New York, Prius…you get the idea. But I often see people spitting in the eye of case sensitivity rules either because they “want to make a word stand out” or they are operating under some random pattern of composition that’s beyond me (and wrong).  I’m not referring to E.E. Cummings or any other author who uses an offbeat written style as art. I’m talking about the work colleague who sends emails titled “Stop stealing my Lunch out of the fridge” or the business that put up a sign advertising “Half off our Stuff that nobody wants.”

The Bunny

The other day I went to my neighborhood park to enjoy two of my favorite activities: reading in the sun and people watching. As I got settled on my blanket, there was one lady who immediately caught my eye. She was meandering down the middle of the small park and looked like she had just woken up (it was early afternoon). Her hair was doing a great imitation of a bird's nest and she was wearing a very thin t-shirt without a bra. To each his own fashion sense, but this was a kid-friendly park and the bright sunlight wasn't doing her natural form any favors. And then I noticed she was holding a leash and walking a pet. And the pet happened to be a giant rabbit. This hungover hippie was walking a huge gray bunny. Of course you expect to see dogs around. And I have a soft spot in my heart for the crazy old lady who pushes her cat around in a wire basket on wheels. But a bunny?