Here are the scraps I collected on Thursday, February 28th.

1. From the viewing deck at the pool, during the swim team rally, I can look over the coach’s shoulder and see the words she has printed out in these colors on a sheet of white office paper:

FAST

SMOOTH

HUNGRY

STRONG

2. In the locker room, I come around the corner from the changing area to the mirrored vanity area, and I see one thing I expect to see — a woman with a blow dryer — and one thing I do not expect to see — another woman seated at the vanity, with a laptop open in front of her. Grace is dilly-dallying, so I have at least 10 seconds to figure out the scene. Under Laptop Woman’s chair is a Barnes & Noble bag bursting with paper. On the vanity counter are check stubs and W-2 forms. She holds and examines a W-2 form. She keys numbers on the keyboard as she looks at the form in her hand. Although it’s warm and humid in the locker room, she wears a coat over her street clothes, which is strange, because she looks as though she is set up to sit there for a while. Why is she doing her taxes, or someone’s taxes, in the locker room? Is she making good use of time as she waits? Does she carry the bag of receipts with her everywhere, in case she has an hour of free time?

3. The Trader Joe’s flyer offers Organic Instant Oatmeal for $2.99. The same flyer offers a “tub” of “washed, peeled, and most importantly chopped” Mirepoix for $2.99, so that “you can focus on your next culinary creation knowing that these ingredients are at the ready.”

Fast. Portable. Instant and at the ready. Is this how our days go?