Justine Kelley

On Wednesday August 28th I woke up, did some cleaning, and biked to work. I I love having extra time in the morning for cleaning, putzing around, rearranging things that don't need to be rearranged, taking too long putting on eyeliner, and generally wasting time to the point where 2 hours have passed already and I’m late for work and I didn’t even do anything that productive anyway.  

After work I ate leftover baked ziti and met up with my friend Michelle. We shared a bottle of wine and talked for hours in the park until 10pm.  A woman came up to us and asked if we like to exercise. She introduced herself as May. She said seeing us reminded her of when she lived in China and people would come out to the park at night and take over the space, talking, gossiping, drinking tea, just general recreational things. They would dance, exercise, play games. She asked us if we wanted to meet up with her the next day at 8pm to do yoga. Doing yoga in the park after dark could be iffy, but there’s power in numbers if all of us went. I thought about why do people pay $20 per class to do yoga together when we can just watch a YouTube video and do it in the park for free. I felt inspired but maybe sad that this park is one of the few third spaces here that don’t require an entry fee, and if you’re broke or frugal, the result is more isolation and feeling alone in the world. Like being on the outside looking in. Sometimes I want to be around the quiet buzz of people for a couple hours then leave, but the cost is a latte ($6.00) plus oat milk (+$1.50) plus tax and tip ($2.50) There’s not even a cafe in barnes and noble anymore, and libraries have weird hours. 

After that, we exchanged numbers but I didn’t respond to her text because social anxiety. But I admired May for her determination to create community with some similarly aged stranger girls drinking wine in an empty park. Then I realized maybe she thought it was tea because we were drinking orange liquid out of a coffee thermos. So anyway that was interesting. The social anxiety thing I'm working on. 

Justine is an artist who is concerned with food, flora and fauna. Her IG is @justine.grape.