Okay…so where are we in the Great Recession story (wink,wink)…… let’s see I think…… we are up to the point when box #98 falls, hits me on the head, and finally knocks some real sense into me….( literally and figuratively) (sometimes Denise is just so gullible …I severely doubt that would happen and if it did than that would be the end of the story and I don’t think that it is time for that just yet).
Actually this week….. I am cutting the rope of the loose noose between the Haggled House and the TLC house. Squaring up on some bountiful baffling bills and stealing ( oh all right ) buying some semi new stuff to spruce up the TLC house…..The bogus bills on the Haggled House outweigh any I have seen yet to date and it is certainly times like this —-that I am reminded why I needed to move. The bulky bills seem almost like my haggled life – a serio comic cathartic confessional in their own right. Honest to you, catch up was next to impossible unless Oprah finally really called… and since that just didn’t happen just yet – it looks like this Haggled Housewife hailed a costly cab to the other side of town just before she stopped blowing bubbles in her hot tub.
This week I wallowed with willies about the recession,(My ugly unkind muse and daily dark companion) the first time in my local paper..with an article about the link between the recession and the onset of depression. The article stated when people lost or lose their jobs they feared or fear losing their houses and then losing their families. Anxiety, stress and worry causes the depression which then in turn causes the suicide rates to go up. This year as well as the rate of suicide , the use of help hot lines also has went up. With unemployment at a breath taking toll and health care costs continuing to climb, the economy is extreme for everyone. Which brings me to words about side story #2 in this blog post. (Now that I do it weekly) I have to fit in alot more wise words …in a short time and space.
After one day in our new TLC house…Cobey meets a new friend on the block…right across the street from him ( he is one year older than him) (YEAH RIGHT) (Well….actually wrongo) because two days later we learn his new friend is moving because he rents the house he lives in and the …monthly payment went up to an almost staggering $3,000 a month. So now he has to move. It seems sad, shameful and silly that families are faced with moving because of the high cost of affordable housing. Now more than ever times are tighter…I still am very fearful and frightened that the economy will continue to sting, stress and strain…seniors, middle aged adults, young adults, and children. Families will feel it (like mine and the one I just mentioned), marriages will muddle (like how I mention mine does) and all members of society will suffer in one way or another way. A nine and a ten year old sharing stories about moving for similar reasons on the same block…seems like some hideous hilarity in my serio comic catharic confession haggled housewife life…..
So finally story #3…. the one I want to find words for ….the one I wanted to write last week. It is during times like this that I am humbled in my haggledness and I hang my head. Recognizing and realizing for some moments in life there are no words….my story is only really a story because I have chosen to tell it….. because I wanted and needed to try to do something to change it or stop it… so that being said I will try to use my pretend story telling suave I have saved for special occasions…. and find the words to write about a friend/coworker of mine.
As a Haggled Housewife, you know I don’t get invited to many playful parties or Saturday Soirees and when I do..I just sit there like a cranky silly shrew… I don’t have many friends per say…Sure, I have the old ladies and my four gal pals as well as my best-est GEORGIA PEACH… I have the occasional acquaintance or two but truthfully I think only really five people really like me at work and now unfortunately after last week the new number is four. You see my friend died and I am extremely sorrowful by the sudden surprise…. so much so that I feel really bad, mad and sad. Just not the same. I know it is the grief and the pain – that is always so lame. I despise grief …it …feels my soul with a sadness I just don’t like experiencing. I think it is a somber shame…… to lose a friend.
You see the lady (Miss. Jean) I want to share my words about was strong and self assured. She was funny. She was bright. She was witty…. and she was tough…. she was fair and honest…good natured and good hearted too. If you knew her like I knew her she was a softie like one of my comfortable old teacher shoes. She was the type of person who really cared about other people…now honestly she was opinionated, and a little sharp…straight and to the point and sometimes her mannerisms gave me quite a fright. She was an extreme rule follower ( not like me in any of the sense) we in fact were opposites ..She would give you everything she had and trust me as her colleague and coworker never fear I asked her for alot. I always knew she would be there for me….truthfully…she never let me down.
She mixed the bleach for me when I couldn’t get to work on time, she fixed my computer four times when I knocked it off line and when my kids were dancing on their beds during nap, she rapped on the window and gave them and me that necessary teacher stare. She lent me toys for the kids to play, made me signs and posters, and got me oil for play dough, she lent me money and gave me free stuff. Although she could be a little rough. She complained to me and about me about the noise my class made and the mess I and the class made everyday. (to my supervisor as well)(she could be a bit of a mini meanie)
She always put me in for the lottery even when I wasn’t at work and if by chance she didn’t I shouted at her…and she said “All right…next time.” I followed her in the morning when she would take her cigarette break and I would stand next to her and try to inhale her second hand smoke. “Here blow it over here…” I would say “Would you get away?!” She would say. “I can’t “, I would respond while smelling the sickly sweet smell of nicotine. She would move my car when it was stuck and I couldn’t do it. Without her glasses to… she would shake her finger at me and say…”When are you going to learn how to drive?” To show her how much I loved and appreciated her for everything she would do for me…. I would bring her boxes of wine because she said she liked those best..you see she was down to earth and not one that you had to pretend to impress.
And when it came to my book, she was honest and real ( although it did initially kind of hurt my feelings a little) She told me…flat out..she would be interested in reading my book but she could not see paying $19.99 for something that …..she literally said … “What the -ell kind of book could you have written?” so I gave her a photo choppy copy because I wanted to know what she thought After she read it she said she liked it and she said she was surprised. She rated it an eight out of a ten. She even read my blog and made a comment. (See the one where I drove to work in the snow) If you know Miss. Jean (an eight out of ten for her is pretty good). On the last day of school she hung out in my room for an hour and 1/2. We talked like we always did about the past, the present and the future. (our jobs, our kids, our lives). There is no doubt in my mind she lived her life the best she could all of the time. She was comfortable with who she was not like wishy washy me……
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention..it was her who found my $78.00 late overdue library book, when she was substituting. She called me on the intercom and said in her smug singy songy voice….”I found Piggy in the Puddle for you……” I said…”The other teacher said she didn’t have it.” “Where did you find it?” “On the bookshelf”, she laughed. “Oh man”, I said. She remembered…that I had ransacked every class because she truly cared about me…she could have just left it there but instead she went out of her way.
As I drink my glass of wine tonight…I will make a silent toast..because in fairness ….. for some moments in life there are no words…I toast Miss. Jean’s life, grateful to have shared a small part of it as her coworker, colleague and friend. My work day will not be the same without her anymore….in fact as she always said…it was her who taught me everything I know at my nonprofit (she was my first partner). Now that she is not here I fear I will fumble, make mistakes because she won’t be there to tell me a joke and share a smile and give me any more advice and help. As a Haggled Housewife….. I am one good friend less.
My thoughts and prayers go out to Miss. Jean’s family. Rest in Peace (Miss. Jean) I will miss you!
Hi Lisa. Yes, it’s me. Your good friend who rarely goes on computer anymore, so don’t feel bad that I haven’t commented on your blogs.
Yes, we will all miss Miss Jean. I feel I haven’t really processed it yet, probably along with other people as well. Some days just pass and then I think of her and still don’t believe I will not see her next month. We can only pray for her family and hope that we can live our lives to the fullest. Talk to you later.
“Live each day as if it’s your last!”