It\u2019s been a week and it\u2019s only Wednesday. Terribly busy and utterly devoid of fun. But there has been one bright spot so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back in the pre-pandemic days, I used to occasionally take myself to the McDonald\u2019s near campus. I\u2019d go in and order the \u201cimpossible to screw up\u201d chicken nuggets meal – along with a diet coke and sometimes a chocolate shake if I was having a bad day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While I was waiting, I would pull out some paper from my pocket and fold some cranes or dragons – or if there was a long wait, a more time-consuming person or a cube. When my order was ready, I would leave the \u201ccreative litter\u201d behind and be on my way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not on campus for work as much anymore and my trips to McDonald\u2019s are even less frequent. Today, though, I made my way there and went through the drive-thru. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The shake machine was, unsurprisingly, not working and it took longer for the nuggets to materialize, but something delightful happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The woman at the pick up window asked me, \u201cAre you the man that did all those little folding things?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I said yes and she reached out to touch my arm through the window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI miss seeing those,\u201d she said and then handed me my food and sent me on my way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was wearing a mask and the context was different – though the food order was the same since I\u2019m a creature of habit. Maybe she recognized my voice – or my haircut – but it was remarkable nonetheless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I forget, sometimes, the wonder these little paper creations bring. For me, just a square of paper and half a thought – mostly muscle memory anymore – and there\u2019s a crane to leave behind. I rarely give much thought to what happens to them afterwards, but sometimes I am surprised by their fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, I\u2019m going to make something complicated and interesting and keep it in the glove box of my car for my next trip to that McDonald\u2019s. If she\u2019s at the window that day, I\u2019ll have a surprise to share. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hope it brightens her day as well. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s been a week and it\u2019s only Wednesday. Terribly busy and utterly devoid of fun. But there has been one bright spot so far. Back in the pre-pandemic days, I used to occasionally take myself to the McDonald\u2019s near campus. I\u2019d go in and order the \u201cimpossible to screw up\u201d chicken nuggets meal – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2693,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2692\/revisions\/2693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}