Monday was a blur of bingo, friends, former dudes, former friends, and a prize bag full of things like a tiny plastic saw and an awful Henry Rollins c.d. that I'm going to toss into the
asap.
I'm going to miss people and things I had no idea I'd give a care about.
And of course I'm going to miss people and things I knew I'd give a care about, too.
3 (perfect) strangers I will miss:
1. Last night on our walk through soggy Irving Park to Tony's Finer Foods (for tuna helper and wine) we come to a stop light where a young boy is arm wrestlin' an umbrella. His mother comes charging across the street with what appeared to be skin so doughy it could be torn off and used for pizza crust.
In our normal assy fashion Kate whispers, "Here comes your girlfriend." and I smiled.
Pizza lady walks right past her son arguing with the umbrella and directly to us. For a second I thought it had stopped raining, but to our surprise she was holding the most gigantic umbrella I've ever seen over our heads. I felt both of us swallow our hearts/tongues/eyes/ears/noses at the same time and I looked up at her squishy face and said, "Thank you so much."
I loved her so much I said it again the same way when we got to the other side. She didn't even look at me and she didn't have to. I can remember her face harder than the face of the people who have come in and out of my life/bed (I might be kidding about the bed part) since I've been here. I know Kate loved her, too.
2. In order to remind myself to fix up a package for awesome ass Stephen I needed to write "RUDY PACK" on the back of my hand. Because I know myself well enough to know that as soon as I get into my apartment the first thing I do snap into a weird world where talking to the cats, dancing, and singing erase the stupid day I had at work. And when I erase the day at work I'll accidentally erase things I told myself to remember at work.
Anyway, the stranger. I apparently carry 5 pens with no ink in my bag, so I began furiously scribbling on scraps of paper while I was waiting on the train platform. None of them worked! And then there was a voice with a sweet Spanish accent so close to a whisper I barely heard it.
"Do you need a pen?"
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I mean YES! Thank you."
I must have gone through every expression/exclamation of disbelief.
SHUCKS, SHEESH, GAHHHH, SEEEEEERIOUSLY
3. On my (not at all close to) pleasant morning walk to work though Chicago's south side I pass a lot of things. Mostly fried catfish trash, crazy people, crying crazy people, and White Castle wrappers.
The highlight of my walk is the parking lot security guard who only gets out of his car to shoot the shit with me. He's on the last leg of my long walk, so I practically run there for real human interaction. All right, who am I kidding? I run there for safety, but man he's sweet. I almost half wonder if someone hired him to make sure I get to work in one piece.
On a day with depressing weather he'll stay in his car. But on a day with depressing weather he'll honk and wave, too!
Tomorrow I'll tell you about yesterday and how my uncle used the money my family raked together to help with our move on phone sex!