A beautiful day in the neighborhood...

I don't know why when I'm the busiest is when I decide to do the things on my list that I usually never make time for, like get new windshield wiper blades. But this week, I got a big Pasty order that I wanted to ship by today so that I would have time to clean my house and my fish tanks before I drive to Olympia in the morning to pick up Mama Longstocking, who is visiting for a week. I think it's the satisfaction of creating a logistically perfect trip and accomplishing as many things in one outing as possible. The other day, en route to JoAnn's and the grocery store, I just popped right into Baxter and purchased those wiper blades! I smiled pretty and put my wedding ringed hand in my pocket and asked the nice young lad behind that conter if he would install them for me because I don't know how. As fate would have it, it started raining as soon as I got out of JoAnn's and I drove home with a clear, clean view of the road to craft pasties and bake chicken. Today, I had two aprons to finish sewing for my order and needed Stress Coat for the fish tank cleaning and wanted a mocha and a scone to.. well, because they're delicious. So, plan. Drive to Les Schwab to have the leak in my tire (that has been there since the Jurassic period) fixed! I simply refuse to wait for things like that. Usually I combine a trip like that with a jog, but I hurt myself this week and have given myself two days in time out to heal. So anyway, I packed for Les Schwab. I brought the two aprons to finish and my laptop, to finish cropping old scanned photos for the best thing I ever purchsed, ever. While I was sitting there sewing my aprons, a cute little old lady came up and asked if I was sewing an apron. Yes, I said, and showed it to her. She put her hand on my shoulder and said that she grew up wearing aprons and that it was very cute and she was so glad to see that young gals today still wore them. I told her thank you and went back to my sewing. Pretty soon, she was back and asking if I'd ever been to JoAnn's (oh woman, you have no idea...) and asked if she could see again because she'd like to make them for her 4 granddaughters who were going to be helping her cook for Christmas. I went through my design with her and showed her how I did it and we talked about hand sewing vs. sewing machine with regards to apron making and then she said she'd let me get back to finishing it. A minute or two later, she came over again, and said that she promises not to bother me by talking but could she share my table? I assured her that her talking was fine and she was certainly welcome to join me. She sat there in silence until my name was called and I was packing up to leave. Then she said "I wanted to tell you earlier, but I told you I wouldn't talk... I wish you were my neighbor."

On a day when I had a hundred things to do and went through the planning to make sure they all went smoothly, never in a million years could I have planned such a sweet encounter. I'm stressed about not having a job right now and have put my faith in the universe that the right thing will happen. Today, with this (now cherished) story, I feel like the universe patted me on the head and said "everything's going to be ok."

I hope that little old lady's aprons turn out perfectly and that her granddaughters love them. I never did tell her about mine having matching pasties :)