After we checked into our apartment at 44 Bridge Street, we left to go get our phones Australia-ready.
We stood near the building doorway for a moment. I can't remember why. I guess we were just trying to pull ourselves together.
A woman rushed past and said in a very bitchy voice, Watch where you're going!
It wasn't a nice way to begin our Australia trip.
I felt pathetic. I felt like a failure.
Was she just an awful person? Or is it something about me?
Is it my lot in life to make people so annoyed? So angry?
Did the encounter symbolize what was now my relationship to Sydney?
No, it probably did not.
It probably meant nothing.
But in my little brain and heart, it DID mean something. It meant a lot.
Sydney and I were already on shaky ground (for various reasons), and this encounter didn't help to soften things.
On the day we were leaving Sydney, we stood with our luggage in the lobby waiting for Tim to hear back about something he had left in the apartment. It was kind of a problem, because we had already returned the keys.
A woman from the Australia Post came in looking stressed and annoyed.
I politely asked if we (meaning our bags) were in her way.
I expected her to say something nice like, No. You're fine.
She didn't. She answered that yes we WERE in her way.
I quickly moved the bags.
She thrust the mails into the slots. I watched and came to the conclusion that we really hadn't been in her way....at least not in a significant way.
She was just a grouch.
I had encountered a grouch on the first day in Sydney. Now I was encountering another one on the last day.
What was the deal?
What's the message, Universe?
Was Sydney trying to tell me that I was no longer welcome here?
Then we talked about it in the cab. Tim said he thought it was the same woman we had encountered on the first day. I hadn't realized it, but Tim had. The first mean woman had worked for the Australian post too.
For some reason, the information made me feel better.
If I had been a waste of space to two people, it might be something wrong with me. But now it seemed more likely that the problem was with this Australia Post employee.
It wasn't a Dina-is-a-worthless-piece-of-shit thing.
It wasn't a Sydney-is-mean-thing.
It was just a case of an unhappy and unfriendly employee of the Australia Post.
We stood near the building doorway for a moment. I can't remember why. I guess we were just trying to pull ourselves together.
A woman rushed past and said in a very bitchy voice, Watch where you're going!
It wasn't a nice way to begin our Australia trip.
I felt pathetic. I felt like a failure.
Was she just an awful person? Or is it something about me?
Is it my lot in life to make people so annoyed? So angry?
Did the encounter symbolize what was now my relationship to Sydney?
No, it probably did not.
It probably meant nothing.
But in my little brain and heart, it DID mean something. It meant a lot.
Sydney and I were already on shaky ground (for various reasons), and this encounter didn't help to soften things.
On the day we were leaving Sydney, we stood with our luggage in the lobby waiting for Tim to hear back about something he had left in the apartment. It was kind of a problem, because we had already returned the keys.
A woman from the Australia Post came in looking stressed and annoyed.
I politely asked if we (meaning our bags) were in her way.
I expected her to say something nice like, No. You're fine.
She didn't. She answered that yes we WERE in her way.
I quickly moved the bags.
She thrust the mails into the slots. I watched and came to the conclusion that we really hadn't been in her way....at least not in a significant way.
She was just a grouch.
I had encountered a grouch on the first day in Sydney. Now I was encountering another one on the last day.
What was the deal?
What's the message, Universe?
Was Sydney trying to tell me that I was no longer welcome here?
Then we talked about it in the cab. Tim said he thought it was the same woman we had encountered on the first day. I hadn't realized it, but Tim had. The first mean woman had worked for the Australian post too.
For some reason, the information made me feel better.
If I had been a waste of space to two people, it might be something wrong with me. But now it seemed more likely that the problem was with this Australia Post employee.
It wasn't a Dina-is-a-worthless-piece-of-shit thing.
It wasn't a Sydney-is-mean-thing.
It was just a case of an unhappy and unfriendly employee of the Australia Post.
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