Greetings readers,
I apologize for not updating these last two nights. I find that I am getting tired earlier, and have simply gone to bed on Thursday night, and last night... well, was a little different. But you will hear about that soon.
So, to update you on what has been going on. On Thursday, August 19, that was the first day of classes at my old college. Even though I am not taking any classes this semester, I decided to head to campus and just see what was going on.
I arrived on campus not too early, and wandered around a bit, passing people on the walkways. Eventually I made my way to the student union. I sat in the union for a while, watching people pass by and looking for familiar faces.
I saw a few people that I had taken classes with, but no one who would recognize or remember me. As the time grew closer to lunch, I thought of a plan that I could do.
I went to the store in the union that sells school supplies, and bought a piece of poster-board and a black marker. I took both items to a table and quickly wrote on the poster-board, "Free hugs" in large letters. I took my sign, folded it in half, and walked to just inside the doors to the union. There I stood and unfolded my sign.
I have heard of, and seen videos on YouTube, of people doing this before. I figured that on the first day of classes, it might not be a bad idea.
As soon as I unfolded the sign and stood there, people walking past would read the sign, some would just keep walking, others would do a double-take, while still others would stop, look again, and then keep moving.
I would like to say that the response was immediate, but it was not. It took me 5 minutes before I gave out my first hug. Finally, what looked like a freshman girl came up to me and hugged me.
I do not know her name, but she deserves a mention here, because she was the brave soul who took the plunge first. Once other people saw her receive a hug from me, they started to come up for hugs.
It was not just women either, men wanted hugs as well. It was not long before I became a novelty of sorts in the union. I am guessing that people were telling other people about me, because a crowd started to gather, and more and more people were wanting a hug.
Again, this is me guessing, but after 45 minutes of me standing there and giving out hugs, a campus policeman come up to me and more or less ordered me to stop doing what I was doing. People in the crowd boo'ed the police officer, but he was resolute in that I was "creating a disturbance" and need to stop, or he would make me stop.
I bowed to the will of the police officer, and simply folded up my sign, gave the man a hug, and walked away.
I felt good after doing that, and not just because I had hugged so many people. I could see the people walking past, or standing around me. They were laughing and smiling at me, and the people that I hugged usually gave me a big smile afterwards.
I know that I did not make a difference in anyone's life that day, but I still feel as if I had accomplished my goal for the day.
I spent some more time on campus before I met up with R and the two of us went back to my place, and hung out for a while. Eventually I got tired, so she went back to her place and I simply fell asleep.
Yesterday, August 20, I was at my apartment in the afternoon, around 2:30. I do not know if any of you, dear readers, have ever lived in an apartment, but at my place, the walls are pretty well insulated, so I do not hear my neighbors much at all.
So it was to my surprise when a rather loud word came through the wall from my next door neighbor. Rather than being an expletive, the word was an exclamation, "What?"
After that, there was silence for a few minutes, and I simply went back to what I was doing.
Before I continue, I should explain that next door to me, lives a man, 32 years old, who works for a company here in town as a manager. Also living with him is his daughter, 10 years old, very nice girl. I have, on occasion, babysat the daughter while the man was at a work dinner, or something else. The girl's mother, the man's ex-wife, does not live with them, and in fact, I am not really sure what happened between the man and his ex-wife, all I do know is that they are now divorced and she wants nothing to do with her daughter.
Well, not long after the exclamation from next door, there was a knock on my door. Using the peephole, I saw that it was my neighbor. I opened the door and let him in.
He told me that he had to go out of town that evening, and would be back tomorrow night sometime. He had hired a person to babysit his daughter for that time, but that person had just called him and told him that she could not make it.
Now my neighbor, who shall from now on be referred to as F, had come over here to ask me to please could I babysit his daughter today, make sure she gets to bed that night, and then watch over her the next day until he came home.
Now like I said, I have babysat the girl, who I will refer to as K, before. Usually what that involves is she comes over to my apartment and we hang out, watch TV, play a board/card game, she brings over her homework or a book, or her dolls, whatever really. I have never been asked to babysit her overnight before.
I suppose that I should be honored, the trust that F was showing me. He was, after all, entrusting his most precious daughter into my care overnight. I agreed, mostly because I like F, and I know that he works hard to provide for his daughter, whom he loves dearly. And it also helps that K is a cool girl, who is really quite fun to hang out with.
So after discussing the details, like where K was going to sleep, he left and came back about 15 minutes later, carrying a bag and dropped off his apartment key to me, allowing me access to his apartment. He said that he had left a letter for K on the kitchen counter, letting her know what was going on. Her bus from school should be back soon.
He then left to go catch his flight. I went and sat on my couch again, and simply waited. About 30 minutes later, there was another knock on my door. I opened it to find K standing there. After greeting me with a hug, she came in and we started to hang out.
I will not bore you with all the details, but just to sum it up, we spent the afternoon and evening hanging out, watched some TV, I made her get her weekend homework done, and just had fun. I cooked dinner for us, and after dinner we watched a movie before it was time for bed, for both of us.
After a rather long discussion with F, we decided that it was best if K slept at my apartment, rather than alone in the one next door. So me being me, I changed the sheets on my bed to fresh ones, and she slept on my bed while I slept on the couch. The next morning, today, she naturally woke up before me, and proceeded to get me up by basically jumping up and down on my head.
After breakfast today, I let her watch some Saturday morning cartoons. It is now just after lunch, and she is dozing on the couch while I am sitting at the table, writing this while I have some free time.
I suppose that seeing as to how circumstances are a bit beyond my control, my goal for yesterday was accomplished through F and K. As for my goal today, well if F comes home early enough, I will go out and see what I can do. If not, well then the post for tonight shall be short. We shall see I guess.
Until next time,
B
No comments:
Post a Comment