Clarification (like butter)

I only ever lived near the hood, not actually in it.*I did, however, grow up in the spirit of hardship. Though my parents may have never grounded me (to this day I am not particularly well-grounded), I was asked, for my punishment, to pick a page from the Book of Pain.

*Nor did I grow up in the Child Hood.

Foolish Rushing

The landlords want to start charging us $100 every time we mail our rent after the first. So I told the landlady, “Elena, you cannot simply will winter into spring, or rush the gentle caterpillar…

… to become a butterfly!!!??!! These things take time. Foolish Russian! Still so much like a child you are!”