Randomness From Today

I did not expect to have a good day today. But, amazingly and surprisingly, I did. Thanks, God. :)

The day was kind of all over the place, so I'm just going to divide this blog into completely unrelated and nonsensical chunks, and hope you're willing to follow along.

Providence

Today, my boss (who is freaking awesome, by the way) let me leave early. I intended to stop at the store on my way home and buy pumpkins -- because this weekend I'm going to have a "pumpkin day" and prepare helpings of freshly roasted pumpkin to use throughout the fall in pies, cupcakes, cookies, whatever -- but I got off the freeway and turned left instead of right. Past the store. So, oh well, I'll go tomorrow. I got home early and decided to immediately take Penny for a walk.

On our walk, something strange happened. We were just passing the school I live by when suddenly in front of me was a little girl, about 1 1/2 - 2 years old, wandering around on the sidewalk alone. Wearing just a shirt and diaper, not even any shoes. She walked toward me and yelled "Mom" a couple of times, and then tried to play with my dog. I stopped and started to ask her where her mom was, where her house was, but she didn't answer. A couple of other neighbors in the area had seen her wandering and also didn't know where she had come from. So, this other nice lady and I walked around for a little while with her, looking for anyone in their yard or car who appeared to be looking for her. No one. We were hesitant to immediately call the police, for fear of getting a good parent into trouble, but eventually we had no choice. Just before the police showed up, so did her family. Our guilt about having called the authorities subsided when we were told that this mother had previous encounters with child protective services. :(

This precious little girl was wandering right next to the street. She could have been hit by a car. Also, in my city we have recently had a very unusual and alarming rash of attempted child luring cases. She could have been found by someone unkind, with poor intentions. I thank God that he placed myself and the other woman (also a Christian, interestingly) in her path so that we could keep her safe and handle the situation appropriately. He works in strange ways sometimes, but his ways are always perfect.

Sillyness

I returned from the walk to find a bunch of voice mails on my phone. One of them was a practical joke from a coworker. I have to leave out some details of the nature of this instance, but let's just say that it involved a solicitation for something, and a "call girl" reference of some kind. If you knew where I worked or who I work with, this would make sense. But suffice it to say: it made me laugh. I always appreciate a laugh. And a lot of the time, I just want to be noticed and included by my coworkers, even if it means they are having fun at my expense. :D

Simple Pleasures

It's Friday night. I am single and over 21. And my plans for tonight are to watch a movie at my house, perhaps with a friend if she comes over. The best part is the movie we might watch. Yesterday, one of my absolute FAVORITE movies of all time came in the mail - Beauty and the Beast!!! I pre-ordered this from Amazon months ago (my first ever pre-order of anything, in my life) and it finally came. I've wanted this movie for years, but thanks to Disney's "vault" policy I have come up empty until now. I'm so excited to watch it. I love it, and I always will, I don't care how old I am. ;)