White woman, brown purse,
big bag packed with fresh produce,
no cell phone: bull shit.
Yesterday was my first day in Chicago, where I will be living and doing an internship for the next 2 months. I am not exactly a country mouse moving to the bit city, but I do have a lot to learn. To make any of the fears I may have worse (mainly, getting lost), my cell phone broke upon arrival. After I settled into my apartment, my roommates showed me around the neighborhood for a while in the afternoon, and in the evening I decided to strike out on my own--- just a 10 minute walk to grocery store.
On my way back, a man on the side of the street stopped me to ask to use my cell phone and welcome me to the city. He was in trouble and willing to offer me a handful of cash for a quick phone call. Now, I am not sure what I would have done if I had a cell phone, but in this case, I really did not have one. As I said, mine was broken, and the replacement would not be in for a few days. As soon as I told him I did not have one, I realized how absurd that sounded. And he realized it too. His first attempt to call me out on my "lie" was to guilt me out of it. He was in real trouble, and he would only use it for a few minutes. His next attempt was just to call me a liar, then to yell "liar" at me. As I walked by, I turned back to really try to prove that I was not lying, but realized there was no use.
He was so unconvinced that I felt like I really was a liar.
