Boston's been very easily incited to tears lately, and now I have taken on that characteristic.
I went into La Salsa to grab something to eat last night. (Of course we have to remember that the staff there all speaks a bit of English as their second language.) I told the young man taking my order that I wanted chicken taquitos. When my dinner arrived, it was chicken soft tacos. I asked what it was, looked at my receipt, and realized he had misunderstood my order. Rather than sending it back, I chose to shut up and eat it, acknowledging to myself that it was healthier than the taquitos. And tears came to my eyes — for people not understanding me; for not having the guts or will power or backbone to send it back and get what I want; for being all alone in the world. (See how quickly I can get from 1 to 237?!)
And then my phone rang.
Let me tell you about Ellen Schuman. Ellen is the cousin of my (John's) beloved sister-in-law Lee Switz, who lives in Richmond, VA. I met Ellen in the late 80s at some party or other in Richmond or Wintergreen. You know how sometimes you meet someone and you feel like you've known the person all your life? That's how it was with Ellen. We don't see much of each other, but when we do we pick right up where we left off.
When I got the call from LexisNexis last week, I immediately called and left a message on Ellen's machine. You see, Ellen lives in Charlottesville, VA, where I would live if I got the job with LexisNexis. Ellen was calling to see how the interview went and express her excitement that maybe I'd move to C'ville.
I told her the interviewer asked if I knew C'ville, if I had been there before. My response had been that I would move to C'ville in a heartbeat. Ellen said, "You just tell her your best friend lives in C'ville."
Well, you can imagine that Ellen's statement absolutely made my day. My sadness didn't go away, but it sure lifted.
No comments:
Post a Comment