It happens to all of us. The best laid plans have a tendency to cause themselves to fall through. Today, it started to happen, and then it miraculously became a much, much better day.
But let's rewind for a minute. Let me first just apologize that it's taken 454 days to post again. It's one of my goals this year to do at least one a month, and while I failed in January, you're getting a double feature today. I could blame that on a lot of things, like an increasingly heavy work and school load, or my fatal procrastination, or having a son for seven of those months (as of this Sunday), or what have you. What I cannot blame it on is a lack of source material. In addition to the many, many, many, many wonderful friends that I have had for the years before I ever began blogging about them, I have made a bevy of incredible friends this year. Friends that are the kinds of friends that it's hard to imagine life before they were my friends. Maybe we were friends in Heaven before this life, too. Who knows.
That said, let me get to my friend today.
You know how in school or work or church or your yoga class there are a couple of people that you know, and that you've talked to before, but you never really think to call them? I mean, they don't "LIKE" all of your facebook posts, and they may not be following you on Instagram, and they're not one of the three people you call regularly, so you're like, "Oh yeah, so-and-so? Such a nice person. Don't know 'em very well, but totally nice." Then after you see them you move on and think about other things until they're really not present in your mind anymore? Maybe I (and this blog) are that person for you.
That person for me is someone we'll just call Maybe. Maybe was in my Chinese class over the summer. I knew her because in our weekly dialogues we would make up skits about what a heart-breaker Maybe was. It was especially funny because she was in on them, and because she's a nice person and very quiet. Not the kind of person you see breaking hearts every day. Not that she's not a pretty person -- she is. Just that she's the person that, at least for me, I'd pass in the hall and think "What a nice person!" and move on with my day, you know?
Well, back to this morning. I overbooked myself, as sometimes I do, and it's my anniversary, and I have a son who needs watching while my wife's at work and I run to my job that's about half an hour away at a school up the Canyon. I was caught in a pickle. My parents were busy all day. My siblings were in school. I'd just asked my in-laws to watch jack two of the last five days. My usual baby sitter had a study group (another wonderful person you should hear all about.) So I did what any desperate person does.
"Scott Savage updated his status: 'I'm in a bit of a pickle. Could anyone watch Jack today from about 12:30 to 2:30?"
I hop in the shower hoping someone will hear my pleas.
I get out to see a notification on my phone from Maybe. It takes me a minute to process who Maybe is, and she says, "If you still need help, I'd love to watch Jack, here's my number!"
To you parents, if someone posts within 5 minutes of you begging for help over the internet and says, "If you still need help..." how hard are you laughing at the thought that you've suddenly been swamped with irrefutable offers? So I say, "Maybe, you're an all-star. I'd LOVE the help." And we arrange for me to pick her up between my morning job and my afternoon job. Awesome.
So I pick up Maybe at the appointed hour, and she and I begin to catch up a little bit. I learn that Maybe is hoping to travel to China to study more this year because Maybe is conversationally fluent in both Cantonese and Mandarin. Maybe studies linguistcs and her final senior project is to make up a language based on Tolkien. So, she decides to be true to the books, and she's making up the language of the wives of the Ents. Which is among the coolest and semi-geekiest things I've heard in a while. She also is doing research with a professor that she asked me to help with and offered to get me paid for. So, I mean, cool right?
Then I take her and baby Jack and drop them off and race off to my job. I come home to find a happy, smiling baby who has been changed and fed, and Maybe offers to just walk home since my son is content and she lives close. She also informs me that she'd love to be asked if we need help in the future. I appreciated that, but I also appreciated that when I walked into my kitchen for lunch, she'd done my dishes. I mean, really. It was kind of just too much, you know?
Some might read this and go, "What a mysoginist, promoting a woman because she cleans and watches children." On the one hand, that's totally true. On the other hand, I think it's more of a reflection of a truly humble person. A person who is looking to do more than is asked. A person who is genuinely kind and concerned. A person who, in spite of her very obviously pressing duties and responsiblities, which far outweigh cleaning poopy babies and dishes, took the time to do something she offered to do very well.
I've been blessed with many good babysitters for my son. The village that it's taking to raise him is huge. He's been very fortunate to have such a big group of people who love and care for him. This isn't about that though. This is just about someone who sometimes passes you in the hallways with a very genuine smile, and takes two hours out of her life to make yours better.
I mean, who doesn't want that in their lives, you know?
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