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July 29, 2003 (Welcome To ChrisCam) Holly Winter does THE BEST column, called, Living The Life Of Holly. I can't top that....but she is so inspiring that I did decide to go figuratively naked here with you today..... A friend ... (who is unaware of the joys of reading Holly Winter..and the resulting inevitable addiction to her column)...asked me what is going on in my life,...saying, "Hey, I need my ChrisCam. Can't wait anymore." My friend, Irene said something similar... "I never say to my sister, okay, I am calling Chrissa now...I always say I am "tuning in" because I swear your life is better than any movie or TV show.." I don't know what they are talking about........ Today, for example, is just a usual day in what Irene calls "the land of Chrissa": Let's see... ~1) I woke up on the floor (because my house burned down recently and I haven't recovered yet... staying wherever I can for a while).... and got dressed in one of my only outfits...a black and white, sleeveless sundress with a rip in the hip, and I have no slip or anything....but who will notice anyway, if I just tie a black sweater around my waist?...And brown leather sandals from Payless Shoes.(who can buy outfits when you have two kids who need stuff...like food)..... ~2) I went to work..in a tall building....high on a hill top...(where my boss is shunning me and I sit alone at the front desk..she doesn't like her coffee sweetened and I am kind-of like sugary, coffee in her life...she prefers her co- workers to be like her coffee......kind-of way leaning way toward the dark side..) ~ 3) I drove up the hill in my new blue Kia, which an American Army Captain in the middle east gave to me..(I don't know him...but he found out I'd lost everything in a fire..and when he heard my car died on top of it all... he gave me his car while he is away...he saw the movie Pay It Forward..and did what he saw in the movie..So...there are really people out there who are great, great, kind, neat people despite what anyone else does!..).Anyway, that is how I got my car. See? So..just like everyone else....I got up and went to work....today.... The local police are, I suppose, are probably deflated... that they can no longer write me tickets. They sort of intuitively knew they could tune into ChrisCam. Pulling me over was always an event for them because at times like that I turn into Lucy Riccardo. They would see me driving by ...and on would go the lights...and they would pull me over ...and get filled in on Chrissa Land.... "No, haven't found a house yet...Correct..still can't afford it...O that in the back, Officer??? It's a pizza..want some? ....Oh, the kids are fine, thanks.....Okay, you have a nice day too, officer".... But the out of state car, which is in someone else's name, and a functioning car with all its pieces intact..... Nothing hanging off...nothing in motion that is not supposed to be in motion...Not even any loud noises coming from it? Now THAT is unsual for me. Didn't take long for the car to become a mess inside though.......empty Baked Lays Potato Chip wrappers, empty Plastic Cherry Coke bottles, white rectangular take out containers....Press Passes of a smiling me drapped over the rear view mirror, a tired jog bra....a blue and white, canvas, K-Mart lounge chair...a brown and green Bianchi bicycle in the back seat.......living the life of a homeless, hopeless, dumped woman....well, man, you can ride around with a lot of stuff in your car. Makes giving rides to people very interesting. "Wanna ride?" "Sure." "Get in." "Um, how?" "Oh, here let me help you....and just move that bra and the deflated tire over...then you can fit if I hold the tennis raquets and the duffle bag and you hold the books and the drink bottles, okay?" "Um...never mind...I can walk.." "You sure?" "Yeah, thanks for the offer though." So anyway...let's see...even for a homeless person, life goes on. Met a guy on the internet recently. I waited a few days before telling him news that my house burned as well as everything in it. It was just me, two kids, a purse and a car now....then the next day the car died..... He reacted incredibly well, surprisingly enough, to the fact I am staying at others people's houses until I get enough income to get my own place again. Reporters earn little biddy peanuts instead of paychecks......we go to the bank with them, and the teller does her best with them...so anyway... starting all over...is emotionally and financially overwhelming to me right now..... He didn't say anything offensive, or off base...instead he told me about how he appreciates women with character and encouraged me that I would get through this. He is not your typical preconceived notion of what ya meet on the internet. He is up in Massachusettes. I am several states away. I met him on the internet. E-harmony tossed him at me. The way he said it...didn't sound like a line..sounded like he actually meant it... His first letter to me said, "I have a "gut- feeling" about you"The way he said it..didn't sound like a line...seemed like he actually had something he'd spotted as similarities between us. I didn't check him out first..just wrote back on my own gut feeling....a letter saying that I work in a newsroom...and told him about the day....with incessantly ringing distant faxes.... CNN was a talking head....the editor was calling to someone across the room to hurry with a story......the police radio was spilling static into the room....the entertainment reporter had just then walked in with five unwanted kittens from a story on a shelter she was working on.... I wrote that as everyone was in the next aisle, crowding around the reporter's purring, gray kittens of death row....hearing a thousand .."aw"s spill down the aisle......I was at my great oak desk, tapping out a letter to him.... I wrote to him casually like that... ...as if he were already a friend...because I figured everybody deserves a chance. Then later that day I took a peek at his profile. And oh, I got the "gut feeling" too big time. He called me on the phone after two weeks of my trying to put off talking to him. No reason, I was just busy with the life of a homeless, hopeless woman with two kids, trying to hang in there... He asked me if I recognized his name.....and he admitted...yes it was really him....but I didn't recognize his name...or at least it barely had a familiar ring to it.....so I just ignored his alluding to his being well known....partly because I thought he was for sure joking.....partly just because it didn't matter to me if he was famous or ...rich or accomplished..or a sports figure ...or had red hair....or was terribly poor...or had one leg...or was in politics......or .....whatever...I was just pluggin away in Chrissa Land. Tell ya who he is and what it's like when I write again tomorrow. I need to get back to work in the newsroom now. ------------ About the author: Chrissa Falcon is a newspaper reporter in the New York Metropolitan Area. Chrissa may be reached at ChrisFalconColumn@hotmail.com Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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