There was a gentleman behind us probably in his late 50's early 60's. He asked if he could join us for lunch. Ariel very quickly answered, "only if you're paying!." That took care of that. But he proceeded to tell us about his 5 medications he was on (heart, blood pressure...) and about all the times he almost died. At birth, North Korea and then when his son tried to kill him. He proceeded quite casually like I am typing and you want to say. "WHAT?" But you don't as you know it will be more than you wanted to know. We finished our business and went on our way.
I went back to pick up the cartridge after lunch and was waiting for a larger elderly lady, that like the man before, just wanted someone to talk to. She had a roll of film devloped and was checking out her photography skills. She was showing the pictures to a lady in line (I thought was her relative or caretaker). There was a picture of a south side priest (not of him, but a picture of a picture of him), some from a church party, and then she had taken a picture of a painting in a church bathroom. She pulled out the picture and started laughing, "This was in the John. ha ha ha." The lady looked at the older woman sternly and went on her way.
Then the elderly lady decided she didn't want one of the pictures (it was poorly taken, not poorly developed). The Walgreens worker asked if she wanted to be refunded the 9 cents for the picture. The Elderly lady had a Walgreens gift card that still had 4 cents left on it. She pondered for a bit and said, "Well since it's new years and you're so busy, I guess I can lose out on the nickel." -- She was serious. And that 5 cents was probably closely budgeted into everything this poor woman does.
This made me think of all the things I take for granted. Sure I'm still single and really really need to start doing sit-ups again... But overall Life ain't that bad. I have family and friends whom I love and they love me back. I love my job and am quite content. I've never had anyone try to kill me and I can afford to lose a nickle.
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