An Unfortunate Text

My roommate had instructed me to get the leaf project over and done with... as in... rake the damn leaves, because they're killing the grass.

So, I did. I even went to the store and got leaf bags. With scary pumpkin faces on them. (Excuse the waste of $1.99 - the bags made me smile and feel partially like a real person, so the money was well spent.)

Then, I raked. And raked. And raked.

Did you know I'm from Louisiana? We don't have this whole leaves falling problem down there. It never gets cold enough, and the leaves are of the we-stay-on-all-year variety. Oak trees are cool like that.

So, I had never really officially raked before. And let me tell you, after the initial excitement wore off, and blisters started forming, I came to dislike the whole raking experience. (Yes, I should have worn gloves. Hindsight, people - I've heard it doesn't need glasses.)

I hate to admit this, but in my head, I even started to pull the musician excuse. It went something like - "This is hurting my hands. I'm a musician. I shouldn't be doing this."

Pathetic.

So you know, after the leaves were finally in piles, I went to go look for the bags I had so cheerfully bought. And of course, couldn't find them. And to be honest? I didn't want to find them. I was done with raking.

I had this nice vision of my roommate and I finishing the job together over the weekend.

Yeah. That didn't happen. And I don't think he was too happy about the leaf piles everywhere. Cause yeah, you know - they were still killing the grass and all...

So, when Boy got into town last week, I asked him if he would help me get the stupid leaves into the now-mocking-me-with-that-stupid-grin pumpkin/leaf bags. He agreed.

Except... I still couldn't find the bags. So, I did what any normal 28-year-old would do... I texted my roommate -

You know where the bags are? Zach and I are going to do it soon.

... I'll just let you sit with that one for a second.

Ahem. Not that any excuse would really be adequate, but I think I was doing a few things at once. Maybe my choice of words wasn't the best? Perhaps needless to say, all I received back from him was a text of:

?

And I have to admit, my initial reaction was - "What the hell? He can't tell me where they might be? Why would he just send back a ?"?!?

And then I re-read my text and understood his confusion. And I have to say, I felt a little sorry for him, getting a text like that in the middle of his work day. It would be disconcerting, you know?

As gracefully as I could (and you know grace is not my best trait), I texted back a clarification, but I gather he's still getting over it.

And for those that are curious - the end of the story is that Zach and I found the leaf bags (one of them was torn pre-use, so I officially paid $1.99 for 1 shit-eating-grin bag - we used regular kitchen garbage bags for the rest), and bagged everything up.

And then, that night? A rain and wind storm, so I woke up to a fresh coating of leaves all over the lawn. This whole having a yard thing? Maybe not as great as it's cracked up to be.

Except that I'll laugh about that text for a long time, so maybe it's worth it after all.