Apartment Incident #1
Over the summer I had to go on an apartment hunt to find a place to live when I moved back to Waterloo for school. I looked at a few buildings but wasn’t overly impressed. In one of the buildings you had to go to the second basement and around about 8 blind corners to get to the laundry room. My mom was not impressed with this laundry situation AT ALL. We then headed to a considerably nicer building with big, clean apartments AND a safe laundry room on the main floor. My mom was overjoyed as I’m sure you can imagine. But the best part about this particular laundry room was that I happened to meet two people in it who were looking to sublet a room. They were moving overseas for a year and their daughter would be staying in their apartment and needing a roommate. Six of us – my mom, my dad, the laundry doers, the superintendent, and I – rode the elevator to check out the apartment. On the way up, the superintendent turned to me and said “I think you’d get along with Meghan (my potential roommate), you’re both so tall!”
What about both of us being tall made her think we’d get along so well?
Hahaha, I don’t think I have an answer to that question. Perhaps it is the shared experience of sticking out a little when you just want to blend in or searching desperately for flat shoes that aren’t ugly. Maybe we could have bonded over our mutual need for extra long pants. Regardless, we’ve gotten along very well so far. My roomie is much more pro-tall than I am and I’m hoping she’ll rub off on me.
Apartment Incident #2
A couple of weeks ago I headed out of my new fabulous apartment to go somewhere that I can’t remember. On my way out I took a short-cut through the moving room and came across an elderly woman waiting for someone to pick her up. When she saw me she practically yelled “Oh my goodness, you are SO tall!” I paused and smiled I think. “You really are quite tall”, she said again. And for some reason I felt a need to explain to her that yes, I was quite tall and that I hadn’t liked being so tall in high school but now it was growing on me, so yes… I am tall.
Why did I feel the need to go into such a life story with this woman?
Again, I’m not quite sure the answer but looking back it seems like I might have been trying to justify my height somehow. The woman then told me about her 6’0” tall daughter who was coming to pick her up. She told me that her daughter was able to find a husband taller than her and then beamed at me. Like I’m thinking, thank God there is hope! I left to go to my car just as her daughter pulled up. When her daughter got out of the car we gave each other that same smile and nod that I’ve shared with many other tall women in stores, parking lots, school, etc. etc. The smile says “hi there, I don’t know you, but I understand that little bit of you that some others can’t.”
A Tall Order 