Twoderful Tuesday...

(That's even 1 more than wonderful!!!!)

What an evening. What a day all the way around, actually. It was gorgeous out and the pups spent the majority of the day chasing monsters out of the yard and running and playing and jumping in the leaves that are trying to compost on the garden beds. The cats were in and out, but mostly out. I finished all my chores, except cleaning the office. But, hey! that's okay. 'Cuz, I'm F-L-E-X-I-B-L-E... *grin* and so I'll just put that on tomorrow's list.

Tonight I wanted to go to a meeting in a town about 20 miles from here. I hadn't been to a meeting there, but I've always been the adventurous type. So, I phone up a newbie and say "Let's go!" She agrees, because she's askeered of me. Later she calls and cancels, because she's so tired and wrung out emotionally...been to a funeral today. I let her off the hook, and think maybe I won't go, because it's getting cool out there and windy. I hem and haw a little, and feed husband, and IM a friend and hem and haw some more. I suddenly think--I need to go. (Be aware that I had just spent 40 minutes locating and trying to download the software to hook my printer up to this old, slow loaner computer. And it went all the way through the long drawn out process before it slaps me with a little message that says "Fatal drive error. This program was NOT successfully installed." ) SO, I hear the still small voice saying "GO TO THE MEETING, SISTER". And I did.

But when I get there, I can't find it. I have the address. I even looked it up on Mapquest (and had to write the directions down by hand because the stoopid computer won't let me hook up the printer). (Not to mention how mad I got when I got to the Mapquest page and saw that the directions were only 3 sentences. arrggghhhhhh) I drive up and down the street looking and see no sign of it. Then I realize that the house numbers aren't in order. I circle around about the 5th time, thinking, screw it-I'm going home. I pull into a parking lot to try to call someone (who, naturally, wasn't home) and think...what the HELL.... and I look up and right directly in front of me is the New Song Fellowship Church! It's a huge yellow brick OLD building. Turns out, St. Louis Street SPLITS in half and runs two ways, and it was the back side. AHA!

It was unnaturally dark. There were no cars there. Anywhere. I drove all the way around it. Nada. Zip. Nunca.

But, standing in a doorway, was a young woman, shivering, with her coat pulled tightly around her to keep the cold wind off. I rolled down my window and said--Is there a meeting here? She said "I guess not." She looked exhausted and scared and pitiful. I said...Hey, get in and I'll give you a ride home. She looked a little doubtful, and then walked over to the car and said, "Well I'm staying at the Mission." I said , get in. When she got in I could see that she was tired and I said there was supposed to be a meeting here, and she said, I know. I called the hotline and they told me to come here. I asked her if she'd like a cup of coffee or something to eat, and she said she had missed supper and was sure hungry, but didn't have any money. I said I had some, let's get something. We wound up at a little hole in the wall Chinese place where we shared a plate of Vegetable Delight with rice and some Crab Rangoon. We had hot tea and we sat there and talked for almost 2 hours. I dropped her off at the Mission just before the curfew, and gave her my phone number.

I don't know if I'll ever see her again, but it sure was an interesting experience. Sometimes I forget that I have to listen carefully, because I never know what the Universe has in store...

One cranky old lady, one cold windy night, one scared little drunk and some good hot tea. And the meeting that never was.

Hmmmm......