Little stories

Inspired by Ali Edwards’s Story Threads from a couple of weeks ago. SO much of my personal writing has been influenced by Ali over the last 20+ years; definitely give her a follow.

These are the kinds of stories that I tuck away to put in a book somewhere. Feel free to give me yours in the comments.

Little bits of life lately…

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Neighbor Mom and Dad went on a week-long trip in September, and she asked me to feed the three feral/stray/neighborhood cats she takes care of. Three different separate bowls of food in three different spots in their front and back yard. Morning and evening. Plus treats.

Plus, in fact, cookies that she gives a squirrel that comes around.

This is aside from their three indoor cats, that they had someone else come take care of.

It took four of the seven days for one of the cats—they call him Creamsicle—to realize I was the food lady and yell at me if I was late.

And when they came home from their trip, Neighbor Mom gifted me with a big wind chime that is now hanging on our back patio.

(I’m glad they like wind chimes, because truthfully it’s closer to their bedroom than it is to ours)

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Spencer bought me flowers recently, and our cats knocked them down not once but twice over the course of a week. This is why we can’t have nice things.

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Because I work from home for myself, I run errands when most people are at work and thus don’t pay super attention to hours and events and things. One afternoon a few weeks ago I went to the closest liquor store and only realized once I got there that it was Saturday.

They do a wine tasting on Friday and Saturday afternoons, kind of like a happy hour(ish), and I imagine it’s a fun little outing for some people.

On this particular Saturday, there were at least a dozen older people crowded around the counter for the wine tasting. And by older I mean all gray haired. Clearly retired. Very obviously this is one of their retirement age adventures.

But there was one … kid. Could not have been older than 24 or 25.

And I want to imagine that he was planning on hanging out with his grandparents that weekend and they brought him along on this random little event with their old people friends.

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At barre class one night this week, I was asking a friend of mine about her wedding plans, and I learned that she is in her 40s and has never been married. With the intention of offering my own experience to her, I said, “I used to be a wedding photographer—”

And was promptly interrupted by another friend gasping out something like, “You have done so many things!”

Girl. You don’t even know. I feel like I’ve lived 13 lives.

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I forgot that I had a couple of tiny plants in my office. The succulent has gone so long without water that the leaves have dried into chips. I honestly didn’t realize that could happen. Ooops.

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I also have an amazing meet-cute story, but it’s not mine, so you’ll have to wait and see if I put it in a book.