Day in the Life of an Idiot

For those of you who have been following the story thus far, you know I've been painting our fence. This is the fence that goes between our house and the house to the south of us, which is a Section 8 rental. We've been passing acquaintances with one of the families that lives in that house because they have kids Mason's age and are, by chance, also lesbians. Today, while I was finishing up their side of the fence, Ebony (who may be genderqueer/trans because the kids call her 'dad,' though the partner uses 'she' to describe Ebony.) Regardless, Ebony and I exchange a few words about the fence and my work and how I'm mostly painting myself. Then, we have this very... interesting conversation.

Ebony: (somewhat angrily) "You like not working?"
Me: (confused, because WTF, I have a paint brush in my hand. I am clearly working), "What?"
Ebony: "I said, you *like* not working?"
Me: "I have no idea what you're talking about. I have a job at the library, I'm a sub. You might not know that because I work odd hours."
Ebony: "I ain't getting up in your business, but she [meaning Shawn] makes the money, right?"
Me: "Uh... that kind *is* my business."
Ebony: "Yeah, I guess it is. So, you're like the stud?"
Me: "THE WHAT?"
Ebony: "You know, like, the stud."
Me: "The stud? You're hilarious. I wish." [Because at this point, given the context of this very odd conversation, I'm thinking, 'are you thinking Shawn's my sugar mama or something?]

We say a few more random, though friendlier things to each other, and Ebony goes back in the house and I go back to painting, laughing at the idea of being Shawn's 'stud.'

Later it occurs to me that maybe Ebony meant 'butch,'* since s/he's no doubt seen me doing odd jobs around the house. It also dawns on me, while I'm retelling this story to Shawn that maybe the issue is that I also had a very short interaction with Don, Ebony's landlord, earlier. He came by for some reason and--though I tried really hard not to--I overheard Ebony tell Don that they were short on rent and that they'd have to make arrangements to pay him later. Thinking about this, I figure MAYBE Ebony really came over to harass me for my perceived status as 'richer.'

Which I guess, from Ebony's perspective, we are.

I mean, we don't rent, we own. We can very clearly afford groceries on a regular basis. I *do* actually get to stay home more often than not--though if I could find a full-time job that would accommodate Mason's schedule, I'd probably take it (though I do love the library a LOT.)  

So, maybe she was just mad about her situation and poverty in general and thought to harass me, because it seems like I'm doing so much better--and, you know, we are.  No mistake.  But it's a matter of degrees, and the distance between Ebony and Nicole and Shawn and I is not nearly so great as it is on the OTHER side of our OTHER fence, with Catherine and James--James also stays home, because Catherine is a college prof at Hamline and they own not only that house, but rent their upstairs AND own properties in Philadelphia.  They regularly travel to Africa and just sent Mali, their daughter, to a college out East for a summer writing program. They might actually be middle class (it's so hard to tell in America, these days.)  

I also get anger as a response to this.  I've felt it in much less dire situations.  

It was still, possibly, one of the weirdest conversations I've had with ANYONE in a long, long time....

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Edited to add: 'stud'--d'uh, I should have gone right to the urban dictionary.  Stud is, in point of fact, a word that means butch lesbian.  I am Shawn's stud.  So, as a bonus, we got to be completely crossed-wired despite both speaking the same language and ostensibly from the same culture (lesbian.)