reasons to slow down.

Excuse me. Excuse me. On your left. Excuse me. Late for work, yet again, Olivia was desperately climbing the gargantuan out-of-service escalator when she nearly tackled an elderly woman who had failed to hear her pleas of passage. She stopped for less than thirty seconds to observe the short, wrinkled woman and then helped the lady get resettled as she, too, hiked the remainder of the one-hundred escalator steps. Any large city has a tendency to create a false sense of urgency, but in this city only half the people are in a hurry; the other half are just merely in the way. Perhaps pummeling a woman was life's way of telling Olivia to slow down. Instead, she sprinted forward and away from the metro exit. Another day. Another dollar. Another battered elderly person. Tomorrow she'd throw some spare change to an old homeless man. That would make up for her rude behavior, right?

She headed directly toward Starbucks, being careful to avoid the aggressive black homeless man who never hesitated to charge at a woman screaming "HEY YOU! Can I have some money?!" Today was not the day to explain to the poor man that his tactics were less than effective. Who in their right mind would pull out their wallet when a large man is stampeding toward them? She ducked her head and moved swiftly past him.

Olivia had picked up the bad habit of drinking coffee during her college years, but city life had turned her into an addict. Three, sometimes four, cappuccinos a day were necessary to prevent an achy head and an irritable personality. She was already late for work but was certain that her colleagues would prefer to have a post-coffee-Olivia rather than the opposite.

"WELCOME TO STARBUCKS, HOW CAN I HELP YOU?" shouted the 6'5 overweight gay man behind the counter. Upon receiving her order and taking her four dollars he pranced to the other end of the counter to start her drink. Normally there would have been three or four other "team-members" behind the counter but today he was all by his lonesome. "HAVE A FAAABBBBULOUS DAY!"

When she first moved to the city the barista's personality drove her crazy. It was far too early for anyone in their right mind to be so loud and obnoxious. As time passed she began to realize that this was simply who he was...all the time. She took a few seconds to smile at him. "Thanks, You too!" she said, quietly hoping he would never change his personality.

Twenty minutes late with her coffee in her hand, Olivia darted down Connecticut Avenue and into an already crowded restaurant. Coffee? Check. Pressed shirt? Check. Fake smile? Check.