July 19, 2011

The downside of friendly

Sunday morning I wanted to visit a church I'd driven by, but didn't know what time it started. I figured the earliest would be 10 AM, so I headed over. The service was at 11:15, so I ran to Lowe's to try to get the day's buying done.

Walking in, the woman passing out coupons at the door looked a little tired. "You doin' ok?" I asked. "Oh," she slumped, "I ran out the house without breakfast. I'm draggin', but I'll be ok." We end up chatting about grits and other breakfast topics for five minutes.

The woman at the return counter asked me, "When are you due? You're having a boy, right? I can tell by looking." Another three minute chat.

Getting back to the bath department, there was a woman sitting at the counter just in front of all the shower heads. "When are you due? What are you having? Mmm... a boy, huh? I don't know which is worse, boys or girls. My daughter had two boys and a girl and then decided she didn't want to deal with it, so I been raisin' them kids ever since. I'm telling you, you can't go to sleep when you have kids! First day they came over, I went shopping. Got toilet paper, washing soap, flour and a bunch of other stuff. Then I fell asleep. When I woke up, the whole bed was covered with toilet paper. All 36 rolls, girl! I'm tellin' you. Them kids was just giggling sittin' around the bed. And BOYS. Well. They break bones and your stuff ALL the time. But girls, not much better..."

Twenty minutes later I just grabbed any old shower head since I certainly didn't have brain capacity to absorb which one was better or worse than the others.

I arrived at church 10 minutes late.

This morning, Aunt Ruby and I went outside to walk the dog. My next door neighbor came out of her house at the same time. I hadn't had the chance to meet her, so I went over to introduce myself. Her recumbent bike was on the porch and she was ready for her morning ride. We bonded over bikes. She warned me about the Bubba Truck culture here that's a bit anti-bike. Since her bike looks so different than a normal bike, she says people actually give her lots of room and friendly waves, "I think they all see the bike and think I'm some sweet little handicapped lady, but if that means they don't try to push me off the road, I'll take it!"

Poor Aunt Ruby was stuck holding the dog's leash and waiting 15 minutes for me. Looks like my expectations for how much I can get done in any given block of time will need to be adjusted for the friendly factor!

4 comments:

Aimee said...

I'm in the same company of all the ladies who chatted with you, I'm afraid. I don't know why I"m so conversational.

Inkling said...

Oh OTRGirl, I don't know if you meant for your readers to chuckle as they read this post, but thank you for making me smile and laugh tonight. I could totally picture each interaction and I'm still smiling over the memory. Being pregnant already works as a standing invitation, it seems, to perfect strangers to strike up a conversation, but it sounds like Texas is even more chatty than the usual interaction of a pregnant woman. But look at it this way, even if you ended up with a shower head you don't like, it sounds like you'll have lots of good blog fodder. =)

And just in case you're still in the market for a shower head rec, I LOVE the handheld one we have that comes with multiple settings. I got a mid-level one in terms of price, but don't remember the brand. All I know is that it's been awesome for three things: cleaning the shower/tub, washing my toddler's hair, and taking care of me during the whole injury saga. I'm so spoiled with it that I had my parents buy one for their guest bathroom that we use during our visits.

Can't wait to hear more of your adventures. =)

Mizasiwa said...

I had no idea Texas was so chatty - although my pen pal of over 20 years is from there, but thats different i think. Anyway what i wanted to say was thanks for the comment on my post and im so happy that people are so friendly were you are... we have lived in the same house for the last six years and i can count on my hand how many times we have spoken to our surounding neighbours so thats really nice - lucky girl!!

Anonymous said...

So how was church?

It would be a great gracing if God led you right away to a church that fits. It took me eight months of searching to find a church home here in Seattle
-- and still the search goes on for Christian communal living.

Once I settle in, I'll be blogging that journey too.