Time travel is exausting

But worth it.
   I remember back when I was a child, and  I go back to a simpler time. A time before facebook, when (if you were lucky) you had a personal website like this.
   No cellphones meant that you had to meet someone at an established meeting place at a specific time. If you were late, with no way to call they either sat there...or left you.
  No facebook and cellphone meant you actually had to carry a camera AND get pictures developed to show your friends what a cool time you had! Then there was that decision...to pay the extra for the one hour photo developing or drop the film off and come back. That's right, film. Half the time you had no idea what your pictures looked like or how many pictures of your hand you were paying for.
   The word "google" had no meaning, but if you were a smarty pants (like me) you were familiar enough with the pages of the Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster's to whip out an answer when challenged.
   Blockbuster was a real thing, not a movie ATM in supermarkets.
   Downloading music was a new fad, a lot of people didn't think it would last. Why download music onto a tiny chip when you can just play all your awesome albums in your Walkman? Sure, if you jostled it too much it would skip, but wearing one made rollerblading look that much cooler.

That is, if you had batteries.

   Words like "organic" "vegan" and "free-range" were not in the common vocabulary, they were mainly used by fringe groups in LA or hippies. Hummus in the grocery store? Please, you were lucky if there was more than one kind of yogurt. 
      YouTube didn't exist, but your parents probably had one of these:

It was pretty neat, and you could make videos to show all your friends that had VCR's. Editing didn't exist though, so use with caution. You never know when you might record something embarrassing...

  "Viral" was actually a medical term, landlines were the only lines, you bought CD's, rented movies and asked for directions. 

   Oh yes, they were simpler times....

The End

I wanted a love that was tender and sweet,
you had a lover that left no room for me.
We tried to make the pieces meet,
we rounded sharp edges till our fingers bled

I miss the way our fingers curled,
together as we made plans we couldn't keep.
Tomorrow, tomorrow, never turned to today,
you lost the love I gave away
I loved you like the honey loves the bees,
like the flowers love the trees
In a million, thousand ways
I never knew how to say, or when

Mirror, mirror

The problem with comparing yourself to other people, is that you will almost always come up in the middle. The drug dealer that beats his wife says "at least I've never killed anyone", the girl volunteering at the homeless shelter knows she's no Mother Theresa.
   We all can find someone better than us at something-someone who is faster, smarter or stronger. When all we see are our shortcomings, we miss the big picture.

  To the girl who doesn't measure up-don't try to be Mother Theresa, you never will be. Even if you did every last thing just as she did, you would just be some person trying to be Mother Theresa.
    To the man trying to prove he's better than the "other guys"-stop trying to find someone worse than you and try to find who the best person you can be really is. Because in the end, the greatest thing we can do is not be better than someone else, but be the best version of ourselves.....

Last Call

   I wish, for a moment, that I smoked. I wish for right now, there were a pack of cigarettes in my pocket, so I could walk across the bar to ask for a light.
   Handlebar mustache, piercing eyes and a loud belt buckle, he stood. Just far enough away that I couldn't strike up a casual conversation, but close enough to see the outlines of his tattoo beneath his shirt.
  Eyes catching, I hold his glance for several moments before I look a way. I tell my self I'm going to strike up a conversation, borrow a cigarette I don't need. I imagine the worst he can say, even that better than wondering. One more deep breath, I gather my courage. Can I do this? I wish I had something to hold in my hands to make me look more important and less alone. I start to feel confident, I set my feet in a path towards him.
   A pretty girl walks up and I turn away. I can compete with my fears, but not my insecurity.