Li'l Nin and the comedy closet

I spent most of today with my Nannie. We went to the Mandarin, and we talked. My Nannie likes to ask me about what I'm doing next year. She also likes to tell stories about her past and I love to listen. My Nannie has had a long and tough life. She was telling me stories about her early working days. I would like to share some.

When my Nannie was 15, she set out and told her mom that she wasn't coming home until she found a job. She ended up lying to this company about her age and future plans. She told them that she was 16 and that she wasn't planning on going back to school. It was a factory to make men's socks. My Nannie worked three machines and she had to shove something on a needle so the sock could sew or something. Anyways, she worked full time for the summer, but she did want to go back to school so she told them the truth. They were angry, but still took her back for the winter holidays because she was already trained.

How crazy. At 15 she is lying and working a dangerous job. It just makes me think about how much things have changed. Imagine trying to do this now? My Nannie is 80 by the way, so this was in the late 40's. (I did math guys).

This story is my favourite. Nannie was hired at a fancy dress shop as a sale associate. This very short woman comes in looking for a dress for her daughters wedding. Li'l Nin helps her and gives her opinion on each dress. When the woman comes out each time, Nannie tells her that the dress isn't doing anything for her. Since she is so short, they all just looked like a bunch of fabric with no where to go. The lady thanks her and says she will try someplace else. Her boss calls her into her office. (What a poor sentence. So many 'hers'.) Boss lady explains that she should have told the lady that she looked fine in the dresses to make a sale. And my Nannie says, "I'm not going to lie to people just to make a sale. Don't bother firing me because I quit." Props Li'l Nin. She worked there for one fun day.

I then asked her what made her want to go into nursing. She explained some heart filled story about when her brother was dying and he only wanted her to make him his scrambled eggs. She explained how rewarding it was and how is was a challenge to her. She explained how she still loves it to this day. (She looks after an elderly women with a program called Seniors for Seniors). She then asked me if I would ever want to go into nursing. LOLNO. I told her I have zero people skills.

I told her about my plan to come back to good ol' high school for another year to think everything over. I told her that I am unsure about what I want to do. She kept asking about if I want to do a specialized skill. I don't even know what that meant but I blurted out something along the lines of, "I want to be a writer. Like comedy. I want to write for TV or something..." and she just looks at me like, "Excuse me?" but asks, "Like an author?" and I say, "No, more like scripts..." and she's like, "That's good because you have a big imagination." Thanks Nannie.

She then left to get some dessert and think over my life choices. It's so hard to tell people that you want to go into comedy because they get so confused. Everyone in my family thinks I'm so smart and shit, but really, I'm not. I retain information and then try to make a joke about it. My mind works with movie and show references. I just want to be funny so everyone just be cool about it!

When she came back she asked me if I would ever consider going into childcare and I was just like no. And that pretty much concludes that conversation. She is happy that I am probably going to go back for the year. I don't think it's that she won't support me, I just don't think she knows why I want to do it. That's everyone's problem. They don't know anything about me but they think they do.

The comedy closet is here to stay.