in which andrea hires someone

...off of craigslist and does not get murdered, raped, or robbed. YET.

In a fit of panic, which is pretty much the only state in which I actually get anything useful accomplished, brought about by the fact that my yard is looking worse by the millisecond and next week starts my prospective three weeks of jury duty with the goddamned feds (thus making me unable to make any plans at all for that three week period, THANK YOU FEDERAL GOVERNMENT), I broke down and emailed someone in response to their landscaping ad on (the possibly evil) craigslist. "Justin"--we'll put that in quotes because how do I know that's his real name? I did not demand to see proper identification--is a "nice"--ditto--young man from Peabody with five years experience in landscaping and a day job, who is doing side work on his own in order to save up money to go back to college.

I decided to contact him because a.) he's very local b.) I am always willing to give my business to people who are out there hustling to make money c.) especially for a good cause like tuition d.) not least because, besides admiring it, I think they're more apt to give you a fair price and e.) his ad was nicely done and fairly grammatically correct. So, yeah, I emailed him on Monday and almost immediately got an email back, sent from his phone, in text-speak. Sigh. That almost erases e.) but I had to remind myself that this is how these kids communicate these days and that when some 22 year old takes his first job in investment banking or whatever someone probably has to take him aside and let him know that emailing a customer "Yea I can come by tom afternoon" is not copacetic, so what do I expect from a landscaper?

Anyway. Justin did come by "tom afternoon" to give me an estimate and for the entirely reasonable sum of $250 (or $275 if he rents a dumptruck to haul away the yard waste) he's going to clean out my entire sad yard and I, and the effin' neighbors I am sure, will be so happy. He's going to email or call on Friday to let me know when he can do it (depending on the weather forecast and whether the other job he has lined up needs to be pushed back due to rain). Also, he reassuringly did not look like a thug, but if something bad happens to me, y'all know who to sic the cops after, 'k?

Um, happy Wednesday.

xoxo