A public letter to somebody unnamed:

If you are between me and the bathroom, or me and the door, and you're not going anywhere but I need to get through the space you're in, YES you CAN go somewhere. You can take two steps backward so I can get by without having to squeeze. This is an ongoing issue. If I'm the one moving, and you're standing still chatting, and there is NO other path for me to get to my destination that doesn't involve going up and down an extra flight of stairs, then it makes no sense for you to tell ME to move out of YOUR way. TAKE TWO STEPS BACK.

If your back is towards the kitchen and you are facing the stairs, taking two steps back will NOT cause you to plummet down the stairs, because you will be moving in the opposite direction.

Just because you feel six inches of space is enough for me to squeeze past you does not mean that I feel it is enough - and my asking you to move back out of the doorway does not mean I want a six foot buffer zone. It means I want enough space to get to the bathroom, or the microwave, or the stove, or the stairs, without risking bumping you or knocking into the furniture.

My mother had a tele-doctor appointment today.

It was interminable, and she tried to lie about her smoking, but at least it wasn't bookended by a 90 minute commute and god-knows-how-long in the waiting room.

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