a medley of mistakes

“No, no, not at all—or maybe. I don’t know, I don’t keep an eye out for things like that,” He leaned in slightly, “is it the same lady that goes crazy when Christmas lights start showing up in the middle of November?” He could only assume so. Their street was extended out enough that he didn’t know all of the neighbors, but anyone that’d get that irritated about a dog doing its business seemed like the kind that would write a strongly worded note regarding christmas decorations. “She’s a hoot. But, yeah. I knew someone who had the same type of dog. They can be really energetic. Took him on runs daily and everything. He was really fit though, so maybe you’re all on to something.”

Hadley's eyes lit up. "Yes...yes that's her. Just....a deeply unhappy person who likes to Karen all over the street and try to squash other people's joy." She'd been like that for as long as Hadley could remember, a looming cloud during her summer visits with her grandmother. "Oh yeah...yeah if I don't keep him mentally and physically stimulated he'll start going after my shoes...and the paper towel holder, for some reason he's got an unshakeable grudge against it."

"I was just trying to get my money's worth," Sam justified. It was a thing in his family, you paid for a meal, you ate it, unless it was borderline inedible or tasted off; alas with all that beer, Sam's own judgement had been off. "Yeah, I remember how you wanted your 'moment'. Too bad it was too crowded for that. Uhh..." Sam mentally scanned the rest of his day. He wasn't doing anything after work, like most days, but work always took so long that usually nothing was open afterwards. Most nights. He could probably get out tonight at 9:30ish. It wasn't such a loaded day. "Depends. What do you wanna do?"

She smiled, but didn't needle Sam further about getting his money's worth. Her parent's had been the 'too busy fighting with each other to care if the cupboard was full' types, and then her time with her grandma generally involved lots of 'there are kids starving, clean your plate!!' Hadley understood all the little ways your childhood dynamics haunted your adulthood. " I....wanna people watch? Like...specifically find messy people to people watch."

"They don't tell you that not only do you gentle parent the children when you work with them, but you need to gentle parent their parents," Lavender lamented with a long sigh. She took a swig of her juice with her left hand and pushed her eggs into a neat little mound to eat. Without even thinking her eyes rolled back in her head. There was no way Hadley was being serious. The diner was as dead as ever not because of quality, but because the only people in where were not here by any other means than sheer willpower to stay up or had the oddest of hours. "2pm?" she asked, leaning forward towards her friend. Lavender shook her head. "The asscrack of dawn is about to break. It does not feel like 2pm, girl."

"And god bless you because I'm sure there are times you wish you could not gentle parent the parents. I had a friend once who worked at a daycare and once she had a parent come in on a Monday and explain that she and her husband had put a flat screen plasma tv in their bathroom because their 3 year old refused to take a bath and miss a second of his shows. Nevermind that there's all this technology to record and replay and stream shit...they were like sure thing your royal highness." Hadley laughed as Lavender leaned in with that face that said 'I love you but you're talking nonsense'. "I meant more that my brain feels like it's functioning the way it would at 2pm." She let her gaze sweep the diner, wondered if the staff were annoyed that they were there or grateful perhaps to have patrons since they'd be stuck there regardless. "The only downside is that your only food options this time of night are diners or like a few fast food joints and sometimes...sometimes a girl really fucking wants some korean street food at 2am, you know? I think that's the one thing I miss about living in Philly."

"Oh of course, you don't wanna get philosophical about heavy shit after midnight, no thank you. I'd rather get overly lost in coffee talk." Hadley let out a chuckle at the picture that was painted for her. "Okay, I can't lie and say there have not been times in my life I'd be double-fisting rose and stress-snacking on nachos, fucking loaded fries, parking lot taco bell. I have respect for that exact scenario. That's my go-to if I've still got places to go and people to see and I need chaotic gremlin energy."

“Shit,that's rough--No pun intended. Hopefully these types of nights are far and few in between.” He took a deep breath, suddenly feeling self conscious at the fact that his night was not as annoying as he thought.

"No small tomatoes...everyone's little battles matter just the same," she answered. Growing up her parents had been so fond of playing competitive games with who had the worst day and who struggled the hardest and carried the most responsibility. Hadley vehemantly rejected their way of looking at the world. Being human was tiring and exhausting and people were allowed to be tired and sad in so many different degrees and ways.

"Mhmmm," she hummed, nodding with a small smile. "That thing. Well." Resting her hands in her lap, she paused as if to think for a moment. "I've heard that that happens, but I'm not entirely sure it's not just some great societal myth, y'know, like some kind of long-running gag everyone else is in on. I don't think I know a single person who actually gets a good night's sleep, myself included, but maybe that says more about us than it does about anything else," Kacey shrugged. It didn't bother her, though. She was honestly grateful to know someone like Hadley, who not only understood her mess, but never pitied her for it, either. "Hads, if it didn't fuck with your head, I would worry more about you than I already do. Not to mention that I think it would fuck with anyone's head, but you are an especially kind and wonderful person with a good heart. The gold standard, if you will. But," she continued, "it doesn't mean it sucks any less to feel things so hard. I get it. And, I know you. I know you did everything you could. I'm sure it doesn't make it any easier on you, but trust me when I say it does make a difference to people."

Kacey could always be trusted to follow her little rambles. "Oh it's absolutely tooth fairy level myth," she agreed, allowing herself a smile. It was a blessing and a sorrow that Kacey was always the first person she knew she could text late at night because she'd be up too. "Maybe when we hit our 30's that's when the sleep fairy will come and pay us back with interest for all the sleep we should have been getting." The assurances her friend gave her were things she logically knew to be true inside her own mind. But sometimes you just needed to hear that grace you should have for yourself reciprocated in the voice of a friend. "My dad was like a very...cold...logical...factual person. He spent most of my childhood telling me I was too soft, and I hate that there are still days I almost believe him."

"He would also smoke a giant blunt and take whatever it was he took." Tacking on, figuring it was an important piece of information given the context. "I guess when you're wired you're wired though, something's gotta bring you down. A double negative."

"Yeah...yeah...double negative, high and low, and then it just all turns into a big mess and the idea of being mid level stable starts to feel like a nightmare." Her lips turned down at the edges and she shook her head. "I'll stick with my occasional black coffee and occasional two glasses at the bar. Playing math games with your ability to just exist without influence is a nasty nasty game."

"And you know full well that if you ever decide to take the plunge and get a tattoo I will be there for your whole experience," Daphne says, grinning, nodding reassuringly. Spending some time with Hadley and their pups at Wonder Bar had quickly become one of Daphne's favorite things to do. Not to mention, Nixie had become Chewy's favorite playmate. Sometimes she even found Chewy searching for Nixie and then would get sad on days the other pup wasn't there. She thought about telling Hadley that, because she thought it was kind of sweet, but she didn't want to make the other feel pressured to show up more often. Even if that's something that Daph would have zero complaints about. "You know what? I'll just have to go all in and do the horror movie sleeve." She was already on her way to one, it was a brilliant idea. "I guess the questions now is, which horror flick do I go with next? Chucky? Halloween? The Shining?" She sighed, taking a sip of her drink. "Anyway, my tattoo woes aside, how are you doing?"

"You will absolutely be more moral support, my brain is just so indecisive I haven't come across anything yet that I know I'd want to have on my skin for the rest of forever." Nixie came sniffing at her hand and she leaned down for a moment to give him a kiss and a behind the ear scratch. "Oh man I'm bias but I fucking love Chucky. That's the first horror movie I sneak watched as a kid and regretted when it gave me nightmares for weeks." She straightened as Nixie settled down again, partaking from the little water bowl she'd brought for him. "I'm good...couple rough nights at the clinic, but that's par the course." She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. It was harder to make friends as an adult than a child, and sometimes she was unsure if there was a mutual friend vibe happening with someone or if they were just two people in a shared social space being friendly. "I was thinking...since Chewy and Nixie get along so well, and hanging out with you is such a vibe...if you maybe wanted to plan a group hangout at the park one of these days?"

"Trust me, I probably teach her perfect little child with the kind of parents I've encountered," Lavender muttered back. "Wouldn't mind half of those women getting karma and making an ass of themselves." Her mouth flipped into a smile. The idea of one of the monstrous mothers she had to deal with embarrassing herself at the local Wawa struck Lavender with such a sense of happiness for their misfortune. "Listen," Lavender started as she reached for her glass of orange juice. "There's also a major difference between sweetened, flavored coffee than just straight black. Doesn't the bitterness wake you up just a bit?"

Hadley's eyes lit up with the anticipatory glint of tea. "Dude I never imagined the kind of stories you could come home from a teaching job with until I met you. The shit you deal with on the daily is insane; like...you're an educator with a side of social worker, family therapist and fucking wild mustang wrangler. I like kids...in small doses...but I would get eaten alive in your classroom, Lav, I swear. Gimme a clinic day with all the meanest clawing cats and wiggling off the table dogs any day." Lavender had a way of taking thoughts from Hadley's head and adding delightful spots of extra color and perspective to them. Her brows crinkled as she took a sip of her coffee and considered the question. "You know...I guess it does. The bitterness and almost like..ya know...the diner quality in general...just all creates a perfect storm that makes me feel like it's only 2pm."

Nancy was hunched forward in an awkward position, her chin nearly knocking against the counter as she furiously scratched at the back of her calf. In front of her laid an open newspaper, more job listings crossed out than there were circled, and a picked-over basket of fries. Needless to say, when this was her riveting night out, she was very happy for any distracting conversation.

"More like...aware that my brain is going to refuse to sleep anytime soon, so I might as well lean into my fate and get enough caffeine in me to be able to somewhat function." Hadley gave a wry smile, thinking about her early 20's when all nighters for college were a necessity and she dreamed of getting past that. But it turned out that no matter where you were at in your life there were always those nights you knew your brain wasn't going to shut off and let you rest. "You know...it's almost the displeasure of the experience that gives the caffeine that extra bite," she whispered, leaning towards the other conspiratorially. "What about you?" she queried, gaze taking note of the open newspaper. "I gotta say I think it's been years since I saw someone checking jobs in an actual newspaper versus indeed."

get to know you meme