Small world.
2006-01-27
8:52 a.m.
Cinzel loves my small world stories. Somehow, someway, no matter where we are, my husband and I usually find a way that we know someone in common. We've had the usual coincidence kind like most people have, but we've also had some weird ones.
We once found out the van battery was going bad when we were leaving a Cracker Barrel in a town about 200 miles from our home. We were on our way to South Carolina, and it was very early in the morning. We knew we'd have to buy another one very soon, but Hubby said if we could just get a jump, we could buy one later in the day on our next stop. Then he went to some folks getting out of their car to ask for a jump. After talking with them, we learned the lady was a high school classmate of Hubby's older sister. I know, I know, mundane stuff, but I love it when that happens, and it happens all the time.
This morning I figured out that one of our builders has shopped in my brother's hardware store, which is about 2 1/2 hours from here, for the last four years. She didn't know my brother's name, but she knew which one he was when I described him for her. (He's a petite little thing, like his sister, and easy to pick out. :)
After talking with this lady this morning, I realize how easy I have it. She's just separated from her husband recently and has moved herself and her two little boys back to this county to be near her family. She said her two-year-old is not handling the separation or sudden day care change well, and she'd had a bad drop-off this morning. She really wanted to borrow our phone to call the day care and see if he was better now. I felt so sorry for her.
I gave her our phone so she could call the day care, and turns out she uses the same one we do. I promised her I'd check on them when I dropped off Youngest Son later, and I did. They are two just adorable little boys who look like twins, and they were both doing just fine. I was happy to report to her when I came back home that they're both doing well, and the guy leading our crew told me, all mock gruff, "Quit, you'll have my crew member crying before long."
The guy leading our crew, Mark, is a really nice guy, but obviously he's used to working with just men. The lady on the crew told me she had just started working for this company three days ago. Well, obviously the men feel they need to make her earn her way, because I swear, the first day she was here I thought she was somebody's wife or girlfriend, because they had her sitting in the garage all day. It wasn't until I left yesterday afternoon and saw her cutting something on a sawhorse that I realized, quite stunned, she was actually one of the crew!
Today they've decided to let her play with all the tools and be a member of the crew. And she obviously knows her way around those tools, too, from what I've seen today. She told me she's been working in construction for four and a half years, and she likes it because she can earn more than she would working in an office somewhere or in retail. I can't imagine doing that kind of work anyway, but much less pregnant. She's in really good shape, though, so maybe it wasn't so hard for her.
So yeah, I realize how lucky I am to be in a profession I love that lets me work inside and earn a good living, my kids are happy, and my marriage is healthy. But my gut instinct tells me this young lady will be fine, too. From talking with her, I got the definite impression she's much more intelligent than the men on our crew, and I think she'll do just fine.
Over and out.
1 comments so far Lizzzygizzzy - 2006-01-27 12:41:01
I liked your "small world" stories! Hummm, construction, I haven't ever entertained the idea of appling for a construction job. I could come build you a goat house, for the goats I am sure you will be purchasing!
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