I live in a high rise downtown.....it is pretty awesome.....it feels like walking into a hotel, every time I come up from the parking garage. Best thing is..... there is no more mowing the lawn, repairs, scraping my car on snowy days and other things a homeowner would have to take care of. Most of the people here are retired and have lived very interesting lives, they are active and I hang out with quite a few of them socially....It is a pleasure living here, and.....I love my landlord (Mom)....haha.
One Friday after a long day of work.....payday.....and the Landlord was coming to sleep over.....(sidebar, my cousin Carol Lee was retired from the Tabernacle Choir and they were having a big "to do" for the other members going out) It was going to be a huge weekend of events and party for her, so we invited Mom to come up for the weekend, instead of driving her back and forth.
I had gone to the store to purchase food items and treats for this special weekend. I noticed chips were on sale so I grabbed 2 bags of Lays Vinegar Chips. Sage and I love to each have our own bag while watching a movie....yum memories of fish and chips in London many many moons ago during another life. Also the rule with my kids has always been on treats.... they can ONLY be consumed when we are having a family activity or movie night.....otherwise the treat cubboard would always be empty! I was so glad of the timing of payday, things had been tight and I had been sewing and doing any other odd jobs for folks to pay bills and such. We usually don't spend too much on luxuries as this...mind you we are happy, but things are tight.....and by the grace of God we get by each month.
Our place has shopping carts down in the garage, so when you do have things to tote from the car, or the storage units downstairs, it is SO convenient to just grab a cart and throw everything in. By the time I got to the elevators there were all ready other folks on, they squeezed over happily and I slid in. My neighbor was perusing my cart, she was all happy and upbeat and smiling and said....oh I see you are having a party....I said well my Mom is coming into town and I wanted to have supplies for tomorrow.....NO party tonight, I will probably just have a peanut butter sandwich because Sage is working late and I am all by myself. Everyone else chuckled on the peanut butter part.
I took all my items into the condo and got everything put away. Got the cart back down stairs in the cart parking and came back upstairs. And proceeded to get ready to relax for the night and make my peanut butter sandwich and possibly do a bit more sewing.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door.....the same happy/ enthusiastic/chipper lady from the elevator was knocking at my door.....she had this totally sad look on her face and stood there in a sad heap....she said "I am so tired!!!" I said "I'm so sorry" and then waited to see what was next....she said " I noticed you had 2 bags of vinegar chips in your cart, (BTW she had just come home from her job and has a husband that also works at a job.....that is 2 incomes.....haha I notice these things since I am paying my way by myself) "we are having hotdogs tonight and those chips would go great with our dinner", (here's the part where i'm thinking....oh how nice, she is going to invite me to dinner and ask me to bring a bag of chips...since I announced I'm having a peanut butter sandwich) she proceeds to tell me her tale of whoa..."I am tooooo tired to go to the store to get chips and I wanted to know if you will give me one bag of those chips, It will go great with our dinner.....is that too wierd to ask?" I explained that I am on a tight budget and these chips are special for my daughter and I to watch movies together....it's a tradition that we have.
She then proceeded to explain she really needed those chips .....and if I would give her the whole bag NOW, she would buy me another bag tomorrow/Saturday and give it to me, it was just too far tonight for her to go to the store....( the store is 4 blocks away).
Usually when I have lived in other places....Herriman and Richfield my neighbors and I have gone back and forth borrowing an egg, vinegar, odd spices for recipes that we forgot at the store, or thought we had on hand....You happily give it over, knowing that you can ask them for something at a later date....I can remember separating eggs once for a girlfriend to help out and sent my kid running with a ziplock bag asap. Those were the days....
But this time it really was rubbing me the wrong way, the acting show,(I realized later this was all part of the dramatization of her getting what she wants) the insisting on not leaving my doorway until she got what she wanted and RIGHT NOW.....also being that we lived in the same building, I would have to run into this person all the time....so I succumbed and handed over the whole bag of chips. After I closed the door I was SO UPSET.....I was mad at myself for giving in, and not just getting a zip lock and giving out a portion....durrr....I was consumed with my own dumbness for handing it over because of her little tantrum.
I told Mom the story when we picked her up, now she is VERY kind unlike myself and would have handed over the chips....but, even she said that the way it was done kinda upset her also. It was the principle, I told the girls at work, just for something funny to share and try to make our days there fun...two of the gals on our team...lovely black ladies who have been to fun to get to know, one had a cane to walk, she said she would go "take care of things" with her cane, the other checked back every day...."did you get your chips???"
Well after 6 days and NO chip replacement, my pod pal got pretty upset, she said "I think you should write a note and tape it on her door and ask for your chips...because she promised to replace the very next day". I said that would look wierd to my other neighbors...there goes Cindy the chip freak....haha. But, I did remember an email address, so I emailed her and told her our movie night was coming up and I really needed those chips.....turns out her email was her husbands (a very kindly fellow, just like his mother who I really have enjoyed knowing...she told me amazing stories about living out of the country and literally starving during the war, she said her own children never have gone hungry because of what she went through as a young woman)....he texted me immediately and said the chips would be replaced that very day.....not sure what was said behind closed doors, but the chips, an odd book about virtues from St Francis of Assisi & others hung in a bag with a note that simply said "thanks for sharing, god bless."
It was just relief to get those chips....I know I now sound like "Cindy the chip freak", but I was glad to see them hanging on the door when I got home.....luckily they were planning on moving into a home elsewhere....so shortly after the incident they were on to another life and hopefully she will be better, not so demanding to get her way.....I would have never posted this if they still lived in the building & now they can still have their anonymity and frankly if she had invited me over for a hotdog dinner, it probably wouldn't have been such a big deal....
When I went to put the chips in the cubboard there was another bag of chips....sweet Sage had taken her own money and gone to the store and replaced the lost bag.....at least I have raised great kids better than myself....and we were able to have our movie night and our chips to much on.
No comments:
Post a Comment