She has blessed me once again with her generosity. You may have seen her asking me recently about my ham-eating habits... and you may have seen where she said she was sending me a chicken dinner from Honeybaked Ham today. Well, no shit -- UPS knocked on my door just before 5 p.m., and had a 15lb. box for me. Since there's a Honeybaked Ham here in town, on West End Avenue, I figured she had somehow arranged for them to deliver a dinner -- y'know, a plate with a piece or two of chicken, and a couple of sides. But no! In this box (shipped from Carrollton, GA -- in a high-tech, well-insulated and reusable ice-pak-equipped package... I always wondered how these perishable food folx did that), there's a frozen (solid!) 6.3lb. whole, roast chicken, and two huge serving trays, one each of green bean cassarole and garlic mashed potatoes -- enough to feed, at a minimum, a family of four. Very well, too!
As if that weren't enough, FedEx delivered a very generous Kroger gift card from Sallyh, this morning, as well. Here's a photo of the note she put on the chicken dinner's label:
I am overwhelmed. Sure, there was a time when I bought my friends dinner and good beer on a regular basis (and they, me, in many cases), but it seems like a lifetime ago. I know I never gave it a second's thought then -- we, as near-socioeconomic peers in most cases, just did this for one another. Now, it's so different for me. I guess I don't feel like a peer, anymore. Now, I feel like a dependent, and it hurts to feel that way.
Learning, as I have these last few years, just how little I need to get by, and still be relatively happy, I can't explain what it means to me to know that I somehow still have people who care enough about me and Curly to do these incredible things for us that we cannot currently do for ourselves, or anyone else. While my heart is sad, and heavy with karmic debt, from receiving all these blessings from friends I have yet to meet, I honestly don't know where I would be with friends like Sallyh, Barry from Alaska, Dr. Barmpot Shouty-Crackers/GWPDA, NMRed, sittenpretty, Hecate, Silleigh, pg, ErinPDX, and the dozens of others who are so regrettably going unnamed here* -- all good people who've sent money, bought DVDs, sent me food, and toys and treats for Curly. Well, actually, I do know where I'd be. I'd be homeless (or, almost as bad, living with my fundamentalist Pentecostal mom in Texas, and hence, Curlyless), computerless, hungry, and by now, quite possibly not even in the realm of the living.
So, to close, all I can say is... thank you Sallyh. And, thank you, all. Whatever I have is yours; whatever I can do for you, I hope you will ask.
* One of the reasons I'm still obsessing over getting into the Toshi notebook's HDD is that it contains a text file that associates all the identifiable names/addresses/e-mail addresses of my many, many benefactors with the handles by which we know one another. Dammit, Jim.
♥
1 comment :
Stop it, JP. Everybody has good times and bad times. I shall have to fly there and smack you if you allow yourself to be depressed. Someday you'll be on the other scale of the balance, and we'll all come whining around your door. Meanwhile, you just enjoy your Curly boy and thank your good karma in a previous life that so many people love and care for you. And don't make me fly out there to smack you, I might hurt my hand or sump'n. %^) PS: I said "check mail" before, but spoke too soon. So check mail this week and write me after.
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