What's With The Rice Cooker?

It's a day already filled with emotions from A to Z and it's not yet 10am. It's a blue time for me, and is often this way at this time of year. The elusive, slow, not yet of the new year suspended in time, last week of the year is here. The weather (yes, I am sadly writing of the weather) is a record breaking beautiful and sunny 70 something degrees here in Texas and I've seen few finer sunsets than last night's.

Simple Abundance author Sarah Breathnach notes in the book today, that this is the time of year some of us may be feeling the post partum let down of the holiday season. That may be. It has happened to me many times. It's a time for reflection of losses and gains from the last year, and of gratitude and letting go.

Last night the Sexy Beast and I were getting gas at a local station when a cop pulls into the parking lot and drops off a lithe blonde thirty/forty-something in a lilac dress and heels. She was carrying a worn backpack, a purse, and a rice cooker box.

OOOoooHHHHhhhkaaaaAAAAyyyyy???? She walked from one side of the station to the other to the phones, where she looked around, lost and puzzled, as if she needed to call someone but had no money. She obviously didn't know what to do next. From afar she looked no more than an average woman who had been very unfortunately down on her luck. Like," get me out of a dangerous relationship" bad luck.

We offered her some money -- and having to think looked like it pained her, but finally, she said $10 would get her what she needed. We scraped up $8 of the ten in cash. We offered her a ride. She accepted. Upon now closer inspection it appeared some of her misfortune might have been brought on by her own choices. Lithe from afar looked gaunt when closer. We suspected some sort of amphetamine addiction. Maybe my Miss Manners sensibilities should have set in earlier, noting that lilac is not an appropriate color for December. Nonetheless, she didn't appear woefully indigent, weathered, or irrevocably hopeless. She might be headed toward these things, but she didn't seem as if she was yet there.

On the short ride she offered that she had been cited for not having enough cab fare. Hence the cop dropping her off. She said it had been a rough month. She asked if Christmas was yesterday. No, we replied, it was on Sunday. I felt sadder. Sort of. We thought we were taking her home, but a couple of blocks later, she pointed in a general direction and said "either way is fine." We dropped her at the entrance of a condominium complex a few blocks away (why didn't she have the cop do this?) Then, she asked if we could take her to a store that was across town if we were going by there. (Strange...) We weren't and suggested she shop at the one just across the street. We offered left over Chinese. She thought about it again, and declined. (Strange again...)

The Sexy Beast and I pondered for awhile what we should have done with her. We were headed for a 12 step meeting, and I thought too late that maybe we should have taken her there. Seems logical. Or asked her what her real story was. Or at least her name. We drove by the area later. There was no sign of her.

Anyway, here's hoping the Lady In Lilac in December finds 2006 to be the year her luck changes. She helped me to remember my blessings of a home, a life free from addiction, and a job are sometimes all I need.

But what's with the rice cooker?