August Happiness Challenge -- Day 27

My 2023 happiness icon

Today's Happiness: Elaine was annoyed with me.

After spending the day together at the Noir City Chicago film festival, Elaine offered to drive Will and me home. It saved me more than $20 and the time I'd have to wait for the next train,* and I was grateful. 

Will and I were yammering rather enthusiastically about the movies. She was quiet, and when she did talk she was snappish with me. Me, not Will.

Was I talking too loud or too fast (I learned the latter especially annoys my Cousin Rosemary)? Did she feel excluded? Was she just fucking sick of me? After all, we also saw each other on Thursday.

I don't care. I was delighted.

Elaine is human, after all! This was the first time she's ever been short with me, and I loved it because she gets on my nerves after prolonged exposure. Nothing serious. She's a lovely woman and a good friend. But she can bug me, and until Sunday night I never saw any evidence that I could bug her. So until Sunday night, I felt a little bitchy.

I love this evening of the playing field. In classic movie terms, Sunday night was proof no woman is ever all Melanie Hamilton or all Scarlett O'Hara.

*Now that I'm a retired lady on a fixed income, I no longer just reflexively summon an Uber. I'm back to my twenty-something self, always carrying a book in my oversized purse to amuse me while waiting for the next bus or train.