The Joy of Peeps

While living in Dartmouth this past year, it became quite apparent to me that I was a recluse. For various reasons, I made little effort to make friends or establish a social life there. I knew (suspected) that I'd be moving back to Ottawa at the end of the year and didn't want to put myself through the pain of separating from newly formed friendships. It was bad enough saying goodbye to Liz, a woman I worked with who became a work friend.

So I was a recluse. Without Peeps. This was never more apparent to me than the two days I lay on my couch in agony with a pinched nerve in my back. My landlady was away and there was no one I could call to come and help me. I felt very alone. And scared.

Contrast that with yesterday. I'm staying with my parents till I can move into my new apartment. I woke up from a nap yesterday afternoon with a nagging, barking cough that took a long time to go away. When I got up, Mum forced a huge wad of honey into my throat and then, after dinner, Jack went out to the drugstore to buy me some cough drops.

I protested him going out in the night after dinner just to buy cough drops for a cough that was mostly gone anyway, but he insisted, saying "You'd do it for me, wouldn't you?" I stammered out "Of course I would," which was the automatic answer, but after a moment I realized it was true.

There was a moment when I choked back tears.

I'm home. I have my peeps again. That was why I came back.