The neighbour I thought might be trying to avoid me tracked me down in the laundry room today to get my apartment number and explain why she had not yet returned the money I loaned her two weeks ago. ”You didn’t do laundry last weekend,” she said. “I came to the laundry room every hour on the hour and you weren’t here.” It’s true. I had been lazy and skipped a week.
“It’s humiliating, …” she had said as we’d walked across to the convenience store to use the ATM so I could spot her $10 till payday. “…to be living paycheque to paycheque,” she finished.
“I was there once,” I assured her, remembering periods during my twenties when I supplemented my minimum-wage income by availing myself of the food bank to feed myself and the homeless fellow who occasionally slept on my back porch.
Then she told me about how her 18-year-old daughter had begged her for some money to go out with a friend. “I don’t have any,” she’d told her.
“What about that $20?” the girl had nagged, seeing a bill tacked up on the bulletin board in their kitchen.
“That’s not mine,” my neighbour had repeatedly told the girl, until finally giving in. I’ve had teenage friends. I know how they can be.
I told my neighbour not to sweat it, there was no rush.
While I tossed two weeks’ worth of dirty clothes into the washing machines, we chatted.
“How have you been?” she asked.
“Every day above ground is a good day,” I said.
We talked about our respective outlooks on life. She said that being positive is difficult when you’ve had a rough life. It’s clear to me from looking at her face that she has had it rough.
I told her about some of the habits I’ve been trying to cultivate over the past couple of decades in order to change my attitude and outlook.
“Are you spiritual?” she asked me.
“Deeply,” I said.
Kelly, I just love your stories. Your whole life is this incredible story. I’m not sure how else to say it. I love learning from you! xoO
Olivia, thank you for letting me know. I almost never start a “story” without hearing that little voice in my head that says, “that is so vapid and boring…why would you write that?” K
I don’t know anyone who tells as interesting stories, Kelly. Especially when they are about “ordinary” things. Because the WAY you tell them and the particular lessons you learn MAKE them fascinating! xoO
Oh Kelly, yours is the only blog I still consistently read for the stories since my first days of blogging. I still think you socialise an awful lot. I know what you mean about feeling like explaining when you say, you have no girlfriends and are ok with that. Luckily for me, I speak to so few people I never really have to explain it.
Karyn, Introversion / extroversion certainly is a continuum, isn’t it? I surely am not on the ultra extreme end and probably look like a social butterfly to the extremely introverted. I have a job which requires me to be around people all day, and I do quite well with it. I have people into my home once a week. I go to church (though I usually sit by myself and don’t stay long in the fellowship room after). And I occasionally meet a friend for tea. If it were not for my long stretches of time alone, I couldn’t do any of that. K
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