The day before yesterday, I wrote about how I was kicking myself for not leaving my recyclables with one of the people standing in line at the recycling center and how I was planning to give them to a lady who usually scours the neighborhood trash for cans and bottles. Well, I came home and needed to empty the trunk to bring some stuff back from my parents' place, so the Man took them out of the trunk and placed them about 9 or 10 feet into our driveway, which is gated.
But then this morning as I was cooking breakfast, I heard bottles clinking in my driveway and went out to see that a short, dark-skinned woman who appeared to be in her 50s or 60s had opened our latched but unlocked gate and walked the 9 or 10 feet into our driveway to collect our recyclables.
Perhaps I had not been detailed enough in Friday's post. Perhaps instead of writing
"...I know there's a lady who combs through the neighborhood recyclables early on Friday mornings before the trash truck comes round. And I think I'll save them for her."
I should have written
"...I know there's a lady who combs through the neighborhood recyclables early on Friday mornings before the trash truck comes round. And I think I'll try to save them for her. But whichever lady ends up taking these recyclables, I hope she comes to get them on Friday morning when I put them out on the curb and doesn't instead opt to open my latched gate and walk 10 feet into my driveway and generally make me feel oddly violated and mildy *whatthefuck???* on a Sunday morning."
Because that's what this woman did. While I'm pretty sure all she wanted was to take all these cans and bottles she assumed meant nothing to me, she breached my general sense of trust in the intentions of people at large in a city that has posed no problems of this sort to me up until this morning. She hurdled the psychological barrier to access the recyclables that was our latched gate and made me feel for a moment that the grill, the smoker, the kids' Power Wing, maybe even the plants, that also occupy that driveway, might be fodder for her repurposing streak.
But as I walked out and said, "Excuse me, ma'am." in a tone that also asked her, "What are you doing in my yard???", and she asked me, "Do you need these?", I moved past my momentary alarm and asked her if she needed a bag to take them in. Both of us having been caught off guard, she seemed surprised at the offer, but then took me up on it. There were a lot of bottles, after all.
As I apologized for my initial tone, she looked at me and said, "No. You are right, you are right." With my front door and blinds closed, she probably assumed no one was home, and that no one would be worse for the wear if she just took this garbage off my hands anyway.
I found out her name is Jarona or something that sounds a lot like that, that she's Indian, and given her refusal of my help to bag the bottles, saying, "It's ok. You give them to me. Is enough." that she wanted very much to retain what dignity was left for her to keep after I'd uttered that accusatory "Excuse me." to her.
I'm not going to beat myself up for the way I spoke to her at first. We have to practice compassion inward as well as outward, and my reaction was reasonable given the circumstances in my opinion. But I will take the lesson with me:
Our truly well-intentioned requests of the Gods or the Universe are often answered in a way other than we'd imagined they would be, and in a way meant not only to reward us for our good intentions, but to teach us as well, if we're willing to be taught.
If she gives me another momentary thought, I hope Jarona will remember me better by my offer to lend a hand than by the way I must have made her feel when I first stepped out on the driveway. In the end, that was my intention - to help her without injuring her pride.
BREAKFAST
Plain bagels with a schmear for me and Mads (whole for her, half for me), scrambled eggs and bacon for Joey and the Man, and half of that cantaloupe for all of us.
1.5 bagels @ $0.18
+ cream cheese @ $0.40
+ 5 eggs @ $0.80
+ 4 strips of bacon @ $1.15
+ half a cantaloupe @ $0.50
+ 2 cups of coffee @ $0.40
+ 2 cups of milk @ $0.45
= BREAKFAST: $3.90 total, $0.98/serving
LUNCH
As we had some unexpected issue come up early in the day, we decided to use another Church's Fried Chicken coupon for 7 pieces of dark meat for $5.00 (none of us cares for white meat, anyway), and make some sides at home. So it was that fried chicken (regular this time, not spicy - and I like it much better), some freshly made Thousand Island slaw, the rest of the creamed corn from yesterday's dinner, the rest of that cantaloupe, and a citrus-ade made from oranges, lemons and limes that were given to us.
7 pieces Church's Fried Chicken @ $5.00
+ 1/3 of a head of green cabbage @ $0.45
+ 1 carrot @ $0.15
+ 1/4 of a white onion @ $0.05
+ 2 sweet pickles, some ketchup, mayo, oil & salt and pepper @ $0.30
+ 1/2 a cantaloupe @ $0.50
+ some sugar for the drinks $0.15
= LUNCH: $6.60 total, $1.65/serving
SNACK
Snack was 4 Fresh & Easy Oreo type cookies for each of us plus milk for the kids.
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| Obviously, we went back for more... :) |
16 cookies @ $1.00
+ 2 cups milk @ $0.45
= SNACK: $1.45 total
DINNER
Dinner was bacon and kimchi fried rice using the rest of the rice from the other night plus another cupful, fried tofu dressed with the dipping sauce from the braised pig's feet dinner, plus a little bit of soup made from an extra ramen flavoring packet and some miso.
4 strips of bacon @$1.15
+ 2 cups of kimchi @ $1.00
+ an extra cup of rice @ $0.40
+ some sugar, soy sauce, gochoojahng and oil for the rice $0.25
+ 1 packet of tofu @ $0.99
+ 1/2 an onion for the soup @ $0.10
+ some miso and green onion @ $0.20
= DINNER: $4.00 total, $1.00/serving
Saturday: $5.40
Sunday: $16.00
$21.40 spent with five days left to go. We'll be feeding one extra mouth this week as the boychild will be staying with us.
It's 1:26 in the AM, and it's been a long day. I'm exhausted but not sleepy, and as always seems to be the case when I stay up this late, I'm hungry.
Off to grab a snack before bed.
shinae
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