Living the High Life in Celebration, FL
28.02.2017.
I write to you sprawled across an uncomfortable, itch-inducing king-sized bed in a hotel room just south of Orlando, FL. Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been exiled to this far corner of the country every week for consulting purposes, and oh how it’s made me question life as I thought I knew it. In my isolation of constant work and hopping hotels built and likely last cleaned in the ’80s, I spend most of my time loathing every second I’m here in this tiny risen hell they to call “Celebration”. Today, however, I had a notable breakthrough. Today, I walked to a CVS across the parking lot of a Golden Corral next to my hotel and bought a four pack of Miller High Life, the 16oz cans.
The beers glistened with a thin layer of newly-formed condensation from the short walk to the register from the coolers. Their golden sheen was so beautiful that the greyed cashier paused before stuffing the cans into a bag, audibly mumbling something about how cold and refreshing they looked. After keying in my CVS number and paying, she started handing me the bag, but she held onto it for a few seconds longer than the normal hurried grocery hand-off we’ve all grown accustomed to. She looked me deliberately in the eye and said “Enjoy these. Enjoy one for me!” and she let out a dually joyous and depressed chortle. She chortled, and I instantly felt at ease. I didn’t realize how knotted I had become over the last two months until that moment. I guess I had an idea, but I don’t think I really knew. I felt connected, acknowledged, and I realized that it had become a foreign thing for me to feel seen. It was as if she were telling me that she had a terribly pedantic team lead that ruined her weekdays and made her feel incompetent, just like me, and she hated the Florida humidity that puffed her hair to new heights, just like me, and we’re in this together with our mutual appreciation for the little things that really matter – cool, refreshing beverages on unseasonably hot winter nights in central Florida, and simple acknowledgement from other people that we’re here, we see each other, hello.
So cheers, CVS cashier. Thanks for seeing me. This Miller High Life is the best thing I’ve consumed in Florida so far, and I’m raising it to you.