old files

I was poking around in some old files and read my journal from 2001 and was suddenly reliving some nuts and bolts details of my incredibly messy life that year. Whoa, Nelly. Emotions all over the place.

Now,  life is much simpler, still a little messy.  Back then I was hanging with a madman friend, about to lose my job, drinking in this bar regularly. 

This barmaid started to like me a lot more than made sense to me, but my madman friend was a hypervigilant type and always reading people was surprised to read the interest from her to me, but delighted since he was trying to get me hooked up. She was lovely.  Her problem was her common-law husband and there was a daughter about 6 years old.  I arranged to take some portrait photos of her.  No one had thought to do that since she was 14.  One of the other bartenders told my buddy and I about her husband: drunk, abusive, and violent to her. That bartender was telling us this to make it clear that if I wanted to get involved he had read me as a good guy and her as really liking me. 

There was a lot of other things going on in my life and some chickens coming home to roost, a squadron. She was stuck and my life was going in another direction. Nothing happened. We lost touch. I don’t know what happened. I hope she found a better situation. Where I am now wouldn’t be enough help for her and her daughter.