I can’t tell you how great it feels to set a misunderstanding straight. Here’s an old memory of such a time.
Dreams
I remember one that came from hearing my step-dad introduce himself to one of the guys that has been working on our bathroom. I was staying at like a hotel with my step-dad and some of his friends for whatever reason, and I was playing poker. I just got $200 in chips but then no one else was going to play, so I just put the chips in my bag and went back to the room. Then we were all going to watch some game which I think was either baseball or like high school or obscure college basketball. I thought I was going with my step-dad, but there were a lot of games we all “had” to see so we split into groups. I was with this one guy and I had to stay with him to listen to one of the games, so it was really weird.
One Year Ago Today
While talking to my parents about moving to California, I learned two things about renting apartments that I didn’t understand before. The first was from my mom, and she told me that last month’s rent gets paid upfront so the landlord is guaranteed a month’s rent while looking for new tenants. The second was from my dad, and he told me that they pro rate an apartment so you don’t have to pay for an entire month if you move in midway through or something. I said I was humbled by my lack of knowledge and thankful that they set me straight and didn’t make fun of me for not knowing these things.
Thoughts
It’s not often that I’ll reflect on an event in my past and feel a strong urge to recap it here. I was playing solitaire on my old phone and I got a great card and I voiced “Clutch.” That reminded me of my time in Haiti, and an awkward situation that came up. I want to talk about it again because I don’t think I’ve ever felt as good as when I summoned the courage to rectify it.
One day when we went to an IDP (Internally Displaced People/Persons) camp we got in groups to go around and share the Gospel. I was with Rachel (blonde Rachel, since there were four that was a common identifier), and she was leading the Gospel presentation. At one point she pulled out the sheet we all got to help us, and I whispered “Clutch” to her to mean that she was doing really well and brought out the paper at the right time. But she gave an uneasy look, and I realized that ‘clutch’ and ‘crutch’ sound very similar. Because I whispered it it’s very possible she thought I said “Crutch,” which could make sense because I could have been saying she was using the paper as a crutch. I didn’t get a chance to set that straight that day, and it was more difficult as time went on.
A few days later I made another mistake when talking with her. She was going to give her testimony to all of us, and she asked if I was going to give mine. I said probably not because I didn’t really feel that I HAD to tell it, so I wanted others to give theirs if they wanted to. She said something about how she didn’t feel she HAD to give hers either, and I realized that I had probably offended her inadvertently again.
So I felt really bad that she misunderstood me twice now, and it was really awkward to talk to her after because I felt she was mad at me. I don’t blame her because if I was in her place I would think I was a real jerk. Then a few days later we had a group meeting, and we were asked to talk with someone if we had something important to say and to not wait until it was too late. I don’t remember exactly what the explanation was, but I saw it as the perfect chance to set this straight. Thankfully no one went up to me and no one else to her, so I walked over to her and laid it all out. I think she said she didn’t take either thing like I thought she did, but I was still glad I explained it all to her and apologized for any misunderstandings. After I explained it all it was one of the best feelings. So there’s a little story for you folks.
My Day
I got to sleep at 7am this morning and planned to sleep late, and when I finally opened my eyes I thought it was still early. I had to look twice and then thrice to see that the clock was right, and it was 4:30pm. I didn’t care too much because I only planned to watch shows on Hulu and TV all day so it didn’t matter. I didn’t bother to put in my contacts since I wasn’t going to leave the house.
I watched the new NBC shows and enjoyed laughing through those. Then I finally got around to watching Apocalypse Now which I’ve had from Netflix for over a month. It was a pretty good war movie, and it talked about some really deep issues about war and humanity. Most of it was lost on me because I wasn’t able to get my head around all of it, but it made it more than just a war movie. I learned that the Seinfeld episode “The Chicken Roaster” where Elaine goes to Burma to see Mr. Peterman was a parody of this movie, so I appreciate that scene a lot more now. It was a good movie, and next I’ll watch the documentary Hearts of Darkness and then Apocalypse Now Redux. Then I watched some Curb, and now bed. Thanks for reading, and “Do you know what’s worth fighting for, if it’s not worth dying for?”
—Eric Del Medico
