Day 70. A kick in the teeth.

I know I've left 4 days out. I've been poor at blogging again, which would usually mean that this post would be an apologetic run-through of previous meetings. That will have to wait. I need to talk about the meeting I had today. It really left my head spinning.

I met Kathleen, or Kathy. She said either was fine. That was the first of many indications that Kathy is a lady who sets other people before her own preferences. We started talking about her job as a nurse. Then about Justin Beiber (yeh... I'm not sure how that happened). Suddenly, she starts tearing my heart out telling me about an ongoing family tragedy. I don't want to get into the details, but her sister is in a terrible situation, and Kathy is trying to help her maneuver it. I didn't just hear about the current situation. She told me about the history leading up to it as well. I just thought my heart had been torn out before. I didn't know what to say. I felt split by my desire to hear more, and a desperate urge to get lost in some mindless distraction. All the while, even though she wasn't saying it, I kept getting clues that she's highly involved in trying to fix the situation.

I've been in a daze since we talked. I'm just at a loss. In an earlier post I mentioned how judgmental I am. Kathy helped me see that I'm also guilty of viewing people as 1 dimensional. Some of my posts display that tendency. If I hadn't sat and talked with her for as long as I did, this post would've been: "Hur hur! Hey, guys! Today I met Kathy. She's a phlebotomist. Isn't that a hilarious sounding word!?" As it stands, I'm left pondering this impossibly difficult situation. As soon as I meet someone, my initial thought is that they are whoever they sound like in the 5 minutes or so that I talk to them. The truth is that many people are hurting much more than I'm willing to admit. Sometimes that becomes evident to me. It should always be on my mind, though.

Sorry if this post was confusing. I'm still trying to work through this funk.

Day 66

Today I met Travis. He's a local baker. He showed me a tattoo he had done when he was young. It was an illustration of a really corny joke. He said it gave him something to remind himself not to take life too seriously. That's about it. See you guys tomorrow.

Day 65

I got home from grocery shopping today and saw this giant dog running loose. Giant probably isn't the right word. What I mean is, he wasn't oversized. I just have a rule about dogs; the smaller the better. Henry was his name. That's what his tag said, anyway. It also had a phone # attached with the word "reward" below it. "WOOHOO!" I thought. Alls I gots to do is dial these digits and collect me some green. I'm sorry to report that I am no richer than before I found the dog, although I did meet someone. Not a total loss, then.

Gloria picked up the phone. "Hi. I found your dog. What neighborhood are you in and I'll bring him back... Oh, that's my neighborhood. What street are you on... That's my street. What number?... Oh. Right in front of my house, then." Again, my attempt to be Action Man and save a dog falls flat on its stupid face. Gloria's really nice. She has two kids. Since my wife is pregnant with our second, I asked what advice she could give me. We had a pleasant conversation. It was really embarrassing that I hadn't met the family living across the street from me. I guess I can chalk that up to my lack of socializing.

Days 59-64

Wow. 6 days and no posts. Please forgive my absence. I've been catching up on school work this week and I'm trying to give up caffeine. Neither went incredibly well. Either way, it led to a whirlwind week. I can't remember who I met on what day, but I do have 6 people to write about. I'm really sad that I waited this long to write about each of them. They all had something cool to offer this blog, and I procrastinated them all away. I'll write about what I can remember. Alright. Here goes.

I met Tracey and Peggy. Tracey lives in Vancouver and was visiting Peggy, who just moved to the states. I could tell Peggy really missed Vancouver. She kept insisting that where she lives now is nice, but she spoke with a great fondness for her old home. Something she said that has stayed with me is that she really misses the sunrises in Vancouver. I also met Jaimie, a middle school math teacher. I had a great amount of respect for her, mostly because I don't get along with middle schoolers. At all. It was raining the day I met her. She commented about how cute my daughter's galoshes were. Cadence then informed her that she was going puddle hunting. Jaimie looked sad and said, "I wish that were all I had to do today." I don't think she was complaining. She looked like she was remembering a Christmas gift she lost a long time ago. I also met Holly, a barista. We actually didn't talk that long, and I can't remember what we talked about. Brad's another guy I met. He's a high school wrestling coach and life skills teacher. We had a great conversation about the jobs his students worked after graduation. Lastly, but not leastly I met Joe and his son, Dan. They live in my neighborhood. I walked past them as they were restoring a '66 Mustang. Seeing them work on it took me back to restoring my first car with my dad. It really took me back.

That felt like a clip show. Anyway, there it is. This week should be more post-friendly. We shall see, my patient readers, we shall see...

Day 58

I met Craig today. He told me about a friend of his that converted a poop scooping business into a mulch and fertilizer business. That's about it. Those of you who follow me on Facebook will know why. Goodnight, and God bless.

Day 56 & 7

I meant to blog last night, but fell asleep while my wife finished an episode of DEA. She's watching another episode tonight. I apologize if this post begins to trail off. I'm afraid I have more bad news. I didn't meet anyone today. It was one of those days when I "met" a number of people, but couldn't really converse with them, or I'd converse with them a while and not get their name. It was a bunch of misses. No hits. Evidently Roy Halladay was pitching. (See guys, I DO know something about sports! I mean, it took a guy being mentioned on every major news outlet in the US, but it still counts.) Anyways, I did meet someone yesterday. It wasn't a massive conversation, but I at least owe you a story.

I met Joann yesterday. She came and met me while I was at a coffeehouse with my family. She heard me say my daughter's name, Cadence. She wanted to know why we named her that, and we told her it's because I'm a drummer. The word, "cadence" is a musical term among other things. While it means other things, my daughter's name refers to rhythm. Joann liked it because her husband is a music teacher, and they'd been trying to think of a girl's name. She said they would definitely use Cadence as their girl's name. I think that's pretty awesome. 

Day 55

Busy day. Enough time to meet Karen. Not a lot of time to talk about her, though. She's lived in this area for her entire life, which struck me as odd. It shouldn't have, but very few people I meet have grown up where they currently live. That just doesn't seem to be the norm amongst my acquaintances. That's all I can say for now. Maybe tomorrow will lend itself to be a more bloggy type of day.