always one foot on the ground.

today I stood in IKEA with a task: desk lamp, comforter, pillows, perhaps a trashcan.
As I walked through the displays I couldn't help but notice the type of people who were wandering around next to me. Newlyweds, pregnant woman, other college students. That was when I reached for the same trashcan as a boy about my age. complete meet cute. I didn't have anything clever to say, so I smiled and reached for another trashcan.
It was in that moment that I imagined an entire conversation we would share and allowed myself to drift off into our first date and all that nonsense. complete and utter nonsense. [I would be clever and he would laugh at my jokes. when he would say "you're unlike anyone I've ever met" I would have actually believed him. He's magically going to the same tiny school as me and magically lives next door. He doesn't suffocate me.]

but wait a minute. When does that ever actually happen? It doesn't.
The phrase "stay grounded in reality" has been ringing through my head lately. In fact that phrase was what snapped me out of my work of fiction. I had been standing there staring at desk lamps for over five minutes.
So I picked the one right in front of me.

perhaps these past nine months I've been too grounded. [not grounded enough?] its hard to say.
difficult to see when you're the one looking in at yourself.