Too personal for the internet.
Friday night I was in the mood for some boston market and about to pay for my all-sides meal when I got the call.
my grandma was on the other end, and said ‘didn’t you hear? (mom’s boyfriend) went after your mom with an ax after catching her with another guy and nobody has heard from you mom today. and he slit all your mom’s tires.’
i thought the worst. death crossed my mind. i couldn’t even think of a response. i got sick to my stomach and was too shocked to even cry.
sew, i volunteered at homeless shelter last night. nothing too exciting to report, but since everyone I talk to on a daily basis (hi Jill, hi mom) was curious as to how it went, i’ll tell you.
I got there around 11 p.m. (to do the 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. shift) and the woman in charge of the first shift was all, “oh, it’s been a quiet night. well, there was that one fight, but i wasn’t here for that because i was in the midst of taking someone to the hospital. but things seemed to have calmed down.” and i was all ‘frick. that’s a QUIET night. im so screwed.’
but luckily everyone was asleep (or at least faking it d*mn well) by the time I got there, so me and the other volunteer on the shift just had to make some sack lunches and not fall asleep. let me tell you, the highlight of the night was the sack lunches. other than that, he and i just played uno.
four three hours. (from 11 to midnight we just talked, while considering the uno). I’m not 100 percent certain, but I’m pretty sure I rock at UNO so i therefore must have won most of the games. 🙂
then around 2 a.m. I went to the bathroom. (i know. exciting). then the next shift’s volunteer showed up at 3 a.m. and the other volunteer and I went home.
like i said, not much to report. i do plan to do it again (see: every second wednesday of the month). and im happy i did it. being a newspaper reporter, pretty much every other story i write is about how the need for these types of things keeps going up (see: poor economy), so what the heck. i don’t really NEED sleep. right?
back in my grad school days i used to cover the governor. (no. really. i did. i WAS cool. i SWEAR). and I would wait for HOURS to talk to the man. and then sometimes, i’d get little more than one sentence from him. and it would be the ever-so-un-useful explanation of why in fact, he did NOT want to talk to reporters.
one time, i waited FOUR hour to talk to the man. and i was wearing HEELS. and i stood in the capital building’s basement doorway, which has a not-so-nice breeze.
and then his possy’s black suvs showed up.
and then his press secretary showed up.
and then she forcefully explained to me that he would not in fact be taking any questions.
and i explained to her that i had just waited four hours in heels and i would in fact be asking the questions anyway. and by that i mean, i actually just gave her a blank stare and refused to leave.
and then the governor came in.
and i was all “governor, governor! answer my question!!” (or something like that). but he didn’t.
so i gave up on real life and decided to ask him instead about the cubs (he’s a fan.)
and because he’s such a fan, he responded. and then i wrote a story about how thought the cubs would go to the world series that year. (they didn’t). and in that moment, he seemed like such a simple man.
ahh. times they have a changed.