To be useful.

I work at a small spa in the basement of an old apartment building complex, located in the party district of Capitol Hill in Seattle. It's a clean little place, a safe and warm where for women to relax, nap, stretch sore and tired muscles, or read, drinking water with limes. It's a place to wash the day's woes, be not bothered by their outside thoughts, and the chilly world just meters away. My job is to guard the door, keep things tidy and stocked, cut the aforementioned limes, and ensure customer satisfaction.

I don't train very much at work. It's a place for me to rest as well, sit for a few hours, blog or read up on forums, sew, imagine, or do nothing at all. Push-ups happen in slow times, or quiet quadrupedie and precision walking. I practice being slow, here, but the idea of 'go' never leaves.

A customer dropped her keys when she left tonight, had to come back in to ask me how to access beneath the stairs, to a nice dark pit of dropped, forgotten, and gotten-rid-of things. I know this because it was the most exciting part of my night so far to grab my flashlight (that I always carry in my backpack,) throw the "Back in 5 min" sign on the door, and climb over the rail to wiggle through a three foot long space to get under the stairs. The whole process was short--forty seconds maybe?--from me next to her and her sister to back with her keys. They hadn't asked me to do it, but of course I had to; something about their recent visit to the spa, the floral scents coming from them, and the slippers seemed not to mix with either of them actually climbing through the asked-for access hole onto a bunch of trash. (And indeed I came out with enough dirt on my pants to make me grin.) So interesting; for them, it was a moment of panic, with discussion of how to get the extra keys from thirty minutes south, and who might come and get them to do so. For me it was a pleasant break in the quiet monotonous night. A new task with just a small bit of useful movement--and it wasn't the deed that makes me happy, but the instant willingness--eagerness even--in myself to do it. And why is it blogworthy? --Because I'm still at work, sitting peacefully again and hoping someone else might drop their keys sometime, so that I might go retrieve them, smoother, and faster, and with less effort than before.