My Distracting Life

Things keep happening to me that make me think, "I should write a blog post about this..." But then life happens, and I never get around to it. So how about I list them, okay?


Winnie
A old woman, Winnie, who was a donor for the theatre who was very kind to me passed away suddenly a couple of weeks ago. She and I had bonded over the fact that I can't cook, which she said she couldn't do when she got married. She called me "Angie", which no one else does. She'd have me over for dinner on occasion, saying that she was worried I wasn't eating. The first time she had me over, I bought her some purple flowers at a grocery store to thank her. And whenever she'd introduce me to one of her friends (including a former congressman from Kentucky), she'd say, "This is Angie. She can't cook." She always made a point to come look for me whenever she was at a theatrical function.

My school has an "adopt-a-student" program that assigns donors to students. Winnie wasn't my donor, but I felt like she may as well have been. I saw her more than I see my donors (they live out of state for most of the year), and she was so supportive of me. Last semester, the student she was sponsoring wasn't here, and I think I was her substitute in some ways. Unofficially, it felt like we did have that sort of student/donor relationship. I wept hysterically for about 24 hours after I found out she had died. And I felt weird crying in front of the student whom she had actually been the sponsor of, almost as though I didn't deserve to cry more than she did or something. Yes, I know that's ridiculous, but that's where my mind went.

Yesterday I went to her memorial service. Her eldest granddaughter remembered me from when Winnie had briefly introduced us a few months ago. She told me that she knew how much her grandmother loved me. She said that Winnie had refused to throw out those purple flowers for months after I'd given them to her.

I feel like talking to her granddaughter gave me a little bit of closure. Someone acknowledging the relationship I had with Winnie. And knowing that it meant as much to her as it did to me.


Car Crash
My brothers used to make fun of me for being too safe of a driver. I'd never even gotten pulled over for a speeding ticket. So it was pretty shocking when I got in a car crash.

I was on my way to see Filmmaker, which is a 5-hour drive. On the highway, everyone was slowing down until we were in 20mph traffic. The car in front of me put on its brake-lights, so I slowed down. But then they came to a dead stop. My car hit their car at about 5mph. There was a teeny tiny dent in their back bumper.

The family was from Toronto. The mother had been driving. The father got out and started yelling at me. They had two of their sons in the backseat, ages 8 and 17. I called the highway patrol. I gave them my cell phone so they could call their insurance company. Being from out of the country, they needed an accident report.

After waiting for about 10 minutes, the mother tells me that the 17yo son wasn't "going to last long out here". He had just gotten out of the hospital, and she was concerned for his health. She asked me to call the police again and have them hurry up. I obliged.

Five minutes after that, she informed me that her son was "psychotic." They had taken him out of a mental institution against doctors' orders because they thought a sunny vacation would be good for him. He had "only had one bad day" in the trip, but she was worried that the environment near the highway might make him have "another episode". She said he was "heavily medicated", but you never know.

Eventually, the State Trooper got there. I got a ticket for $151. I also got a lecture about how there's "no such thing as a car accident," because they're not "accidents"... something had to go wrong before they happened. The official terminology is "car crash".

So that whole ordeal ended up taking an hour and a half. And now my mother is terrified and has informed me that she never wants me to go visit Filmmaker again.


Filmmaker
I've visited him twice now. I can't come up with an adjective to describe just how great he is. He's wonderful. He's splendid. He's everything I need right now.

He likes me, too. He made a joke once about writing a song for me called, "You're So F***ing Awesome."

We make a strange amount of sense together. Yes, we have our Religious differences (he's confused about why Catholics place so much importance on Mary, for example). Yes, it still weirds me out that he was married to a minor. Yes, we're going to be in different places for a long time. But it's still worth it.

He shaved off his beard a few weeks ago. I think he might be even more handsome now, if that's possible.



He's wonderful and fabulous and the best thing ever.

He just now sent me an email with all the reasons he loves me. I want to wear it around my neck and show the world that someone out there loves me for who I am. Maybe I'll post it on here... Or maybe I'll just keep it for myself.


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You know, I know there are more things that I could write about, but I won't. I'm putting this up so that you know that
A. I'm not dead
B. My life is not boring


May you find that living your life is more interesting than writing about it. At least occasionally.

~A~