"Man, all you do ever do is work, work, work. Don't you do anything for fun? Don't you just relax?" complained Jax as he flopped down on the sofa next to his roommate Derrick. Derrick just grunted, moved a random dreadlock away from his face and kept typing away on this keyboard. Jax took a look around the darkened living room. The curtains were doing their best at preventing the afternoon sunlight from entering the room, although some of the light was peeking through around the edges. What little light that was creeping in barely illuminated the discarded corn dog sticks, empty chips bags, and mostly crushed cans of Citrus Kickstart laying on the mid level brown carpet of their apartment floor. The blue sofa was starting to sag a bit where Derrick had set up his temporary office. "This place is a fucking mess dude! I ain't picking up after you," Jax said, aiming a kick at a near by can. Derrick grunted at his roommate's outburst but made no other indication that his roommate was talking with him. Throwing his hands up in the air with a growl of frustration, Jax stomped out of the living room, into his room and slammed the door. And the only sound that came from the living room was the sound of another can hitting the carpet.
The next morning, Derrick awoke to a stiff neck. He had passed out after another long night of coding. His boss had been really riding him and his whole team to try to get this new clothing site up and ready for launch two weeks before the customer was expecting it to be ready. They kept having issues with the shopping cart charging weird shipping costs and duplicating items to very high amounts. He rubbed a hand over his face, feeling the roughness of his stubble on his chin. Thankfully the hair on his face grew rather slow, unlike some of his coworkers. Steve probably had a beard right now that could rival Grizzly Adams. Derrick stood up from the couch, wincing slightly as the joints of his lanky frame tried to resist his sudden movement. He had been sitting on that couch for way too long. Maybe Jax was right. Maybe he was working too much. He looked around and noticed that the trash from his last session was missing from the carpet. In fact, the whole living room had been picked up while he had been passed out on the couch. He felt his heartbeat begin to rise. His pride, his joy, the lifeline to his job and the world, his Leveno ThinkPad, IT WAS MISSING!! Derrick's heart went from just beating fast, to about to explode. "Jax!" he screamed. "Where the fuck is my laptop?!" Jax emerged from his room, clearly having been awoken by Derrick's yelling. "Dude, what is your problem?"
"My laptop, you moron! It's missing and I need it for work!"
"D, my man, all you do is work. Ii am freeing you from the electronic beast."
"What?! I need that for work! I have to work!"
Jax gave him a look that was very similar to the look that a mom gives a child who is throwing a temper tantrum. "I get that you need it for work, but work is all you do. You never go out anymore. Heck, you don't even participate in game night, which you started. All this work is not healthy for you. So," Jax crossed his arms across his chest, "this is what we are going to do. You are going to leave this apartment and do something else other than work today. You are totally brain fried and you need a break. How do you expect to solve your major issues with your site if you don't break away once in a while and let your brain relax?"
Derrick stared at his friend without saying a word. The silence in the apartment was getting thicker and thicker by the second. He didn't want to admit it but his friend was right. Grudgingly, he shoved his hands into his jean pockets and stared at the floor in defeat. "Fine," he muttered. "I'll go for a walk." He turned on his heel and walked out the apartment door and into the morning light.
Several blocks down the road, Derrick was muttering to himself about how unfair the world was and he wasn't looking where he was going when he ran into a little old lady as he turned around a corner. "Oh my goodness. Ma'am, are you okay? I am so sorry. I wasn't looking where is was going." The tiny gray haired woman just reached down to pick up her dropped bag with a chuckle. "It's alright young man. You look like you are having a rough day. "
"You have no idea ma'am."
She wrapped her arm around his and said, "Why don't you walk me to my class and tell me all about it. I'm Mimi, by the way. You are about as tall as my grandson except he doesn't have such nice long hair like yours."
Derrick couldn't help but smile at Mimi's chatter. He introduced himself and told her what had happened. She nodded and made sympathetic noises as he talked. When he was finished, she said, "Well, I'm sorry to agree with your roommate but all work and no play just makes you old before your time. You should come with me. I'm meeting up with a few of my girlfriends and we can teach you a fun little hobby that will help you get your mind off your work from time to time. Plus, it will help keep your fingers nimble, which will help you in your work too."
Mimi walked Derrick up to a little craft shop and she about pulled Derrick through the door. "Now, lets get you some supplies. Being a rather computer smart guy, lets start you off with an easy one." She was pretty speedy for her size and age and he stumbled a bit as she turned down one aisle. It was full of little kits of cloth, thread and needles. "Ah, this you should be right up your alley," she said with a grin as she held up a little packet as close to his face as she could reach. It had a little picture of R2D2 on it. "I am going to teach you how to cross stich." The grin on her face was contagious. He was not going to say no to such a sweet lady. "Alright Mimi, teach me."
For the next hour, he sat surrounded by Mimi and several of her friends like a very large bird in a group of little sparrows, working on his R2D2. The ladies were more than happy to give him advice and help him when he messed up. The stress left him as the picture grew bit by bit. At the end, R2D2 looked back at him from the little circle of cloth. The ladies hugged him several times before he left and they made him promise that he would be back the following week. He would be back. He knew that he would have to do many of the other characters, but that first one was the best and closest to his heart.
(Photo from: https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/e/eb/ArtooTFA2-Fathead.png/revision/latest?cb=20161108040914)
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