vacations to quiet places turn me crazy
Posted by megan on 17 Aug 2009 | Tagged as: work, random, vacation, philly
i returned from a week in vermont a week ago yesterday. i’m having a really hard time adjusting.
this morning i was walking to the liquor store to buy one of my clients a handle of jack daniels, and two bottles of wine. i’m just going to go on a tangent for a minute and talk about this client. she is in her mid-50’s, living alone, although she is married (second husband - he lives in jersey i think). she has a cat and a little maltese. i give the maltese a bath in her sink every other thursday. she chain smokes, and drinks a lot (this is the second handle of JD i’ve bought for her in as many weeks). i’m pretty sure she’s on some crazy pills. she is a retired women’s studies/religion professor. in addition to giving her dog a bath, i do numerous other things for her including putting together her furniture, taking out her trash, putting in her air conditioner, helping her with crossword puzzles, fixing her computer, organizing her bookshelves, taking her cat to the vet, running errands for her, etc. it was “too hot to go out in that shit” today, so she was wondering if i’d stop by the liquor store for her. one of my dog-walking clients is a half a block away, so no big deal. plus i think she is pretty awesome (she swears like a sailor), and she pays me, so whatever.
anyway. i’m walking to the liquor store. there’s a little old lady coming toward me, struggling a bit on the curb with her cart. she pulls it over the hump and makes a beeline toward me. i am hugging the building, yet she makes it a point to walk diagonally and directly into me. “WATCH OUT!” she absolutely snarls at me. “Watch out yourself (you old cunt)!” i snap back, the cunt part is in my head. she yells something intelligible at me and wanders off. i follow a middle-aged couple into the liquor store. the woman walks slowly, stops, walks again, oblivious to anyone around her. she is taking up the whole aisle. she doesn’t give a shit. she’s looking for some fancy-ass wine. i want to punch her. i drop off the liquor, then walk to another client. they live in a $$$ building on rittenhouse. the woman at the front desk is telling me some story from her childhood on st. thomas. really? don’t care. my shorts get caught on the door handle, and they rip. i sweat a lot and finally reach my last client of the day. i unlock their door, walk in, and their alarm goes off. they neglected to tell me they’re on vacation, and i don’t have their code. i call them, but no answer. the cops show up 15 minutes later. the one who gets out of the car is younger than me. he seems really nervous and his hands shake when he writes down my phone number. i’m not sure what to make of this. the client calls an hour later, laughing, non-apologetic. can i go back and reset his alarm? bite me. meanwhile, shit like this happens to me every day. i usually shrug it off, and keep going, and focus on the good stuff (lots of people said hi and were kind to me today, too!) why do i hate everyone lately?
i’ve been drinking a lot and watching a ton of tv since i’ve been home. one night i drank a whole bottle of wine, another half a bottle of vodka, another a 6-pack of beer. yet i haven’t been able to get drunk, or even buzzed. i wake up at 7 with no hangover, no tiredness. what the hell? i watched like 10 hours of tv yesterday. my ass was seriously asleep by the time i got off the couch. i haven’t done that in about 5 years, since i was depressed. is that it? nah, i don’t feel depressed. just bored.
i guess there’s no real point to this post, except that i’m feeling totally aimless and wishing in were back in the woods in the middle of nowhere. or maybe wishing i’d never gone at all, if this is what i end up feeling like when i get home.