Plain Vanilla

The early bird catches the worm.That was her motto, her rule, and she lived by it. She considered herself vanilla, boring and predictable, she loved routine and the simple life. Up at 5:30 every morning, hard to do in the fall and winter but easy in the summer, she did it every single day. A typical type A, she had things to do and sleeping in any later would ruin her plan for the day, which was always very organized; she thrived on routine. Workout, breakfast, then off to work and on weekends it would be the same except, instead of going to work, she would meet with friends or tinker on the piano. She saw the same friends at the same coffee shop and played the same music, mostly classical, maybe Beethoven or Mozart.

So, why did she sleep in on that one particular day? She was looking forward to getting the day going and could not wait to get to the gym. The day the sun rose and shone in through her bedroom window well before 5:30? She had no idea, but when she woke up, she was in a panic. Luckily, it was Saturday and wouldn’t affect work but what about her routine?

“Ugh”, she got up, made her usual breakfast - oatmeal with walnuts and blueberries, always, with a dash or two of cinnamon. Her white gym shorts and top were on the drying rack but were still damp so she had to wear something else which bothered her but it was going to be that kind of day so she told herself to just go with it. She did laundry on Saturday afternoons so her back up outfit was in the wash, darn. The only things she could find were the black shorts and top which she had not ever worn, they were a gift; she preferred white but had to go with what she had.

Finally ready, she grabbed her things and left, locking the door behind her. She ran into her new neighbour, who she had only met once, so they chatted for a while - she learned that she was a singer in a band and they were looking for a piano player and asked if she knew anyone. Hmm, interesting she thought, she was a master at the instrument and considered a piano university program after high school; that was something she often dreamed about but, now that she had a job and bills to pay, it felt impractical to begin again. Shrugging her shoulders she shook her head and said she didn’t. But the question lingered in her head for a few minutes.

When she arrived at the gym, her usual locker wasn’t available so she had to use one at the very end of the room by a large rectangular window overlooking the street. She put her things away and noticed the busy sidewalk below, people coming and going. There was also a music shop across the street which made her remember her interaction with the neighbor earlier this morning. She thought the name of the shop was interesting, Retro Revival. Putting her jacket and water bottle away, she stopped for a minute and tried to look into the shop, but she was too far away. As she wandered toward the treadmill area, she wondered how different her life would be if she had taken the music route.

Every area was extremely busy at this time of day; she had to mix up her routine - and wasn’t very happy about that. After doing her weights, she had to wait for the treadmill, so went to her locker to grab her water and ran into a guy she knew from school. He was the nice guy who everyone liked, super friendly. She remembered that he always brought the best lunches; not just a regular sandwich but on one fancy focaccia bread with sweet pickles and hot mustard. They had a lengthy discussion about their favourite restaurants around town, and decided to have dinner together later that evening. It would be a chance to try the new restaurant everyone was talking about, although it would mean stepping out of her comfort zone, as she only frequented the same 3 eating establishments. It was going to be fun, she told herself.

Her workout was great, the black shorts were actually super comfortable, she was happy with it all. Starving, she decided to check out the smoothie bar - this wasn’t part of her routine but no part of the day had been part of her routine, really. She was starting to feel a bit less vanilla and was going to step out of the box a bit as it seemed that the universe was sending her a message. The line was huge, but moving quite quickly. She knew exactly what she wanted, however at one point she did wonder if she should just grab something on her way home especially since the person ahead of her was struggling to keep balance while carrying two trays, each holding four coffees. At some point, someone bumped the tray and the coffees went flying and spilled everywhere. There were many apologies but the damage was done so, covered in hot coffee, she went back to her locker to grab her things. Hmm, she was happy to have worn black - spilled coffee on a black top was better than ruining her white top. Grabbing her jacket, she glanced out the window and saw that the music shop had put a sign in the window - 50% discount on sheet music. Ha, if she had used her usual locker she would not have known about the music store with the funky name. Interesting.

An hour later, a gym bag over her shoulder and a bundle of sheet music in her hands, she walked to her apartment with a smile on her face. She was fine being vanilla, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that a swirl of chocolate had slipped into her bowl.