Nancy & the UPS Guy
Dec. 22nd, 2007 09:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mallorys_cameraNancy's birthday, and also the one-year anniversary of her death. Ben is pretty broken up about it, but playing it close to the chest.
I'm sad too. Nancy was always kind to me. She didn't like me at all. But maybe part of that was my fault. Maybe I didn't behave very likeably around her – I was raised by wolves, after all, so propriety in some essential sense has always eluded me and propriety was important to Nancy. Plus I'm terribly self-involved, not really interested in anyone but myself. I think she knew that about me somehow. Nancy was opinionated, but I think she actually did put other people's interests before her own.
I'm going down to the Mission to light a candle for her.
Elsewise yesterday was a cold but productive day. In the morning I delivered the last of my Internet orders to UPS.
"They're not gonna get there before Christmas," said Martin, the desk guy.
"Oh, I make no guarantees after the nineteenth," I said. "But people order anyway."
Through the windows we watched a middle-aged couple cross the street. Their faces were grim. On their heads, they each wore a pair of felt reindeer antlers.
"Why do people do that anyway?" asked Martin. "I've never understood. It looks ridiculous."
I smiled. "I was thinking that very thing! But I wasn't going to say it. I thought, if I say that, he's gonna think I'm the biggest bitch in the world."
"I just don't get it," said Martin.
We laughed conspiratorially. But then I started feeling guilty. "I don't suppose it hurts anybody," I said. "And if it makes them happy –"
"Look at them," Martin said. "Do they look like happy people?"
And I had to agree: they did not.
I'm sad too. Nancy was always kind to me. She didn't like me at all. But maybe part of that was my fault. Maybe I didn't behave very likeably around her – I was raised by wolves, after all, so propriety in some essential sense has always eluded me and propriety was important to Nancy. Plus I'm terribly self-involved, not really interested in anyone but myself. I think she knew that about me somehow. Nancy was opinionated, but I think she actually did put other people's interests before her own.
I'm going down to the Mission to light a candle for her.
Elsewise yesterday was a cold but productive day. In the morning I delivered the last of my Internet orders to UPS.
"They're not gonna get there before Christmas," said Martin, the desk guy.
"Oh, I make no guarantees after the nineteenth," I said. "But people order anyway."
Through the windows we watched a middle-aged couple cross the street. Their faces were grim. On their heads, they each wore a pair of felt reindeer antlers.
"Why do people do that anyway?" asked Martin. "I've never understood. It looks ridiculous."
I smiled. "I was thinking that very thing! But I wasn't going to say it. I thought, if I say that, he's gonna think I'm the biggest bitch in the world."
"I just don't get it," said Martin.
We laughed conspiratorially. But then I started feeling guilty. "I don't suppose it hurts anybody," I said. "And if it makes them happy –"
"Look at them," Martin said. "Do they look like happy people?"
And I had to agree: they did not.
