The librarian had told her about emergency shelters and asked if Jill thought the politicians might soon go seeking a long term solution for homelessness, making the point that dressage and stadium are not the same as thoroughbred racing -- "due to the associated costs and training times, your equestrian sports are available to a select few." Jill knew that the opening ceremony cost $1,000,000, and maybe even strategic sweeps the week of to arrest the homeless. And, she was also haunted by the risk of homelessness increasing, with rising utility costs on the way… she sometimes felt guilty for such frivolous interest in sports.
Jill had recently come home to find her landlord had propped the front door wide open for the open house. She asked if her indoor kitties were locked up safe someplace and the woman stared blankly at her, eventually stating "You didn't give me any specific instructions about the cats." Jill hadn't realized the open house would be such a LITERAL affair, ha. She went looking for the precious pets and was unsettled that they didn't come when she called. She was shocked that the woman would forget a brand new mac computer behind and act so ungrateful when Jill returned it to her, finding it while searching for the missing animals. What did it mean when she said "I've dealt with crazy people before."? Was she referring to her new prospective tenants, the current lot, or her past representative in bringing in new renters? Whichever, Jill thought maybe it meant she MADE people crazy, ha, and tried not to be crazy mad.
It turned out her cuddly pals were both hiding in the rotten walls of the attic, which was normally kept locked off limits. Quite a relief, after all. Quite a relief too to be making a nice new home for them all across town.
*
It was true that to see how small the event is in the national perspective one only had to look for coverage in the national newspapers…
Jill thought it was a little bit anti-marketing to criticize a competitor in public, at the arena cafeteria, about not wearing team colours, but what would she know -- she wasn't part of the team. "EVERYone got a jacket." Were they for sale? Could she buy one? The competitor said he didn't get one, could he?
Jill had travelled with her occasional student and occasional equine journalst buddy from the Cayman Islands, carrying their Public Relations job hunting aspirations along too. She foolishly delegated the route-researching, car-renting, and driving to the foreigner, because she was so busy wrapping up things on deadline at work and because the young, clever woman asked to help!
As Jill began (finally) to predict, their rental car GPS map took them right into the heart of a brand new subdivision in a nearby development instead of the giant horse facility they were supposedly headed to and indicated they'd reached their destination… making them very, very lost and very, very late, and in fact, very torn about continuing on and making an appearance at all. Clearly the volunteer roles they'd committed to would be overwith by the time they actually arrived on site. Jill was mortified to be so mortified…
Becky was the one with the epiphany that they should just figure out their way there and show up and offer a good attitude, and make the best of whatever the situation was. What a good call! Good lesson too, ha.
No comments:
Post a Comment